Seasons Changing - The 51st Hunger Games
by Chandee
Summary: Last year was a Quarter Quell and every Gamemaker knows it's hard to be in charge of the Games that follow, with everyone expecting very high standards. Marcus Spark's task has not been easy, but he has managed it. What tribute can survive the changing of the seasons? SYOT *closed*.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone and welcome to this SYOT. I want to do this by the rules, which means that the form for this one is on my profile and that I only accept tributes by PM. Here's a prologue of sorts. Rules are stated down below.****  
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**Anyway, enjoy, review and please submit.**

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**Seasons Changing - The 51st Hunger Games**

**Chapter one**

Marcus Spark was glad he could finally leave the hovercraft that had brought him here. He would of course never admit it when called on, but he had no love of flying, at all. It made him feel sick and, if it was really bad, he also had to throw up. Fortunately no such thing had occurred today and now this ordeal was behind him, at least until the end of the day. Now he would forget about it all and simply feast his eyes on his very own masterpiece: the arena for the 51st Annual Hunger Games.

He had worked on this arena for a year, had missed sleep over it and had almost suffered several nervous breakdowns over it as the deadline drew closer and it started to look like they weren't going to make it. But they had made it and now here he was, drinking in the sight of it. Every minute of the preparation had been worth it. It was perfect.

'Are you pleased, sir?' The high, annoyingly breathless voice of Amelia Glitter interrupted his musings. She was one of the junior assistants and she irritated him to no end. If he had a say in it, her career would be short-lived, very short-lived. She always reminded him of an overenthusiastic puppy begging to be allowed to fetch her master's stick. All that missed in the picture was the tongue hanging out of her mouth and the wagging tail and Marcus half expected for her to start doing that soon anyway.

'I haven't seen enough yet to declare myself pleased,' he told the girl dismissively. Being Head Gamemaker was the job he had dreamed about for years, but he could have done without the responsibility of dealing with all these young assistants he had been assigned. They seemed to be underestimating the importance of the Hunger Games and its preparations. All they wanted was a good show, but there was so much more to it and Marcus failed at getting them to see that. Bloody idiots.

'Didn't you have a tour organised for me?' he demanded when she just kept looking at him expectantly. Who was it again that had called this girl intelligent?

She nodded so fervently that Marcus might have feared her head might fall off, if he had actually cared about that, which he didn't. 'Yes, sir. Will you just follow me then, sir?'

She didn't even wait for an answer that question, so eager was she to show him around. Marcus chose not to remind her that he had already seen every inch of this arena on computer screens, in simulations and camera recordings. As a result of that he probably knew more about the arena than she did, a lot more. But he was of the opinion that he needed to see it for himself, which was why he had insisted on this visit. The real thing was always different from what the cameras could show you. He needed to see it all for himself before he would declare himself satisfied with his work.

The arena was of course far too big to explore completely, if you were trying to do it all in one day like Marcus was at least. After the Games, he promised himself, he would come back here and take some days to visit every place, to fully admire it the way it was meant to. Because this was more than just an arena built for some annoying, whimpering tributes to die in. Oh, it was so much more. It wasn't just a tool, it was a work of art.

But for now he had to stick to the main routes and that was enough to get a decent impression of what this place really was. He at least had had the sense to wear sensible shoes, something Amelia had completely forgotten about. Her high heels looked highly uncomfortable to him (but then, all high heels did. How women could get around on those things was a complete miracle to him) and they kept sinking away in the mud, but she didn't complain, not even once. She just walked in front of him, her pink, almost purple, hair an easy beacon for him to follow, as she chattered on about the booby-traps and the mutts that would be released in the arena once the Games had started. Since he was the one that had come up with aforementioned booby-traps and mutts that was rather annoying to listen to. He blocked her mindless chatter out almost immediately, instead focusing on the arena itself.

And he wasn't disappointed with the way it had all turned out. There were some minor details that needed seeing to, but he knew he had done well. So, at the end of the day he declared himself satisfied (he could almost see Amelia's non-existent tail wagging as he said that) and returned to the Capitol, feeling altogether pleased with himself. And tomorrow it would be reapings and he would see the faces of the tributes that had the honour of going into his arena. He couldn't wait.

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**Here's the prologue. Now it's up to you to provide me with tributes. I do, however, have some rules.**

**1. NO Mary-Sues and NO Gary-Sues. No one is perfect and everyone has flaws. Make your tribute realistic and give them interesting back-stories. Real people have them and so do tributes.  
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**2. You can submit as many as you like, but I love details. I'd rather have one very well written tribute than three rushed ones. And I don't care if you need more than one PM to send them to me, at all.  
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**3. Keep them realistic. Outer districts are unlikely to have much volunteers, just as the Career ones will have very little (or not one) reaped tributes.  
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**4. This is not first come, first serve, but if your tribute is good, you're probably in. The list will go up on my profile as soon as i start receiving triutes. **

**5. You may reserve spots, but do fill them within the week or the reservation is cancelled.  
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**Okay, that were a lot of rules, so here are a few promises:  
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**1. I will finish this story.  
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**2. As soon as a district is filled, I'll write the reaping, so hopefully I'll be able to start soon.  
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	2. Chapter 2 - District 8 Reaping

**Hello dear readers. Here's the first reaping. And I think I might need to explain why I start with District 8. I stole the idea from another SYOT, but in that one the author wrote the reapings whenever a district was filled, so that's what I'm trying to do. I write down the numbers of the filled districts and let one of my family members choose one, which I will then write. So don't expect this to go chronologically. You are warned…**

**Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think. I hope I got the tributes right!**

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**Chapter 2 **

**District 8 reaping**

**Lacey Devereux, 17**

Dawn was only just breaking as Lacey quietly slipped out of the house, looking left and right to see if there were any people in sight. There weren't. It would look like she was lucky today. No Peacekeepers, no neighbours awake yet, wondering what that Devereux girl was up to so early in the morning_. The odds are in my favour now. Let's hope they last the day._

With that encouraging thought she softly closed the door behind her and started jogging to the agreed rendezvous spot. Any running that wasn't sprinting wasn't something she excelled in, but at least she got warmed up nicely this way. It was cold outside and she shivered, increasing her speed to get the blood flowing nicely. And she had to hurry up if she didn't want to be late. And Lacey hated being late, very much. She was sure her mother knew what she did from time to time, but that didn't mean she approved and Lacey was sure she would get a lecture if she was caught in the act. Best not to get caught there.

There was absolutely not a single person out here, well, no one except that weird, taciturn Victor's guy who went for his daily morning run. But since he never as much as looked at her, he didn't really count. He wouldn't even know what she looked like, so he couldn't give her away to anyone. Besides, it wasn't a crime to be out early. So she ignored him and sprinted the last hundred meters to the meeting place, enjoying the feel of freedom the running gave her.

Jasper and Manny were already there. They were both leaning against a lantern post, both of them looking extremely relaxed.

'You're late, Lace,' Jasper commented. 'What took you so long?'

She glared at him for using that annoying nickname. It always sounded like she was somehow made of lace, which she wasn't as far as she knew. 'You try and sneak out of the house when your mother's having a sleepless night again and you have to get across three parts of creaking floorboards without making a sound.'

He held his hands up in defence. 'Sorry. Here, have some breakfast.'

Manny tossed her something and she caught it instinctively, only studying it once the round object was safely resting in her hands. 'An apple?' She couldn't help but noticing how disbelieving her voice sounded (and how very girly, to her immense displeasure), even when she had the proof of it in her very hand. 'Where did you guys get that?'

Manny shrugged nonchalantly, as if it was nothing, which Lacey knew it wasn't. Apples were extremely hard to come by, especially when you were trying to get them illegally. And since neither of the boys had enough money to buy them, illegally was the only way of getting them.

'Didn't I tell you that the greengrocer's locks don't function that well lately?' Manny grinned at her. 'I am told he's going to have someone repair them after the reapings, so we might as well enjoy it while we can, don't you think?'

She took a bite out of her apple, incapable of remaining angry with either of them. 'You could have waited for me, you know.' There was an underlying tone of hurt in her voice. She knew she was late, but she hadn't been _that_ late and it stung that the boys had gone off without her. It made her feel left out.

'We thought we'd spoil you,' Jasper said, not quite meeting her eyes. 'Since it's reaping day and all that.'

The very mention of the reapings made her want to throw up. Reapings twisted her stomach in tight knots and made her want to hide somewhere until it was all past. Unfortunately that was not an option.

'Thanks for bringing that up,' she snapped. 'I was almost in danger of forgetting.' Like that was ever going to happen. Her mother hadn't been the only one to have had a sleepless night. 'You still could have waited for me.'

'We still wanted to spoil you,' Jasper shot back.

'I'll have you know I'm not some delicate female who needs to be pampered, thank you very much.' Lacey knew that her appearance didn't work in her favour that way. She was relatively tall, but her build was rather slender and people often seemed to think that made her fragile. Her name, very feminine, didn't help either.

'Oh, come on, Lace, give it a break,' Jasper told her. 'It's reaping day today and we know you're nervous. You can go back to being no-help-accepting-I-can-do-it-all-myself-just-fine-Lacey tomorrow, right? Tell me, how many times is your name in that bowl today?'

'Thirty times,' she whispered, the very thought making her nauseous again. _Come on, Lacey, pull yourself together. You're not a child anymore._ 'Which you knew,' she accused him. 'Because your name is in the boy's bowl just as many times.'

'Not as many times,' he argued. 'Only twenty-five slips of paper this year.'

_Only_. Unbelievable that they could talk about that as if it normal that they had twenty-five more chance of getting reaped for a game where you were almost certain to die. It would be ridiculous if it wasn't so scary.

Manny misinterpreted her silence. 'Don't worry, Lace. There's a lot more slips in there than just yours. You're always the lucky one, remember? You won't get picked. Now, will you please eat that stupid apple before it goes bad?'

**Escher Sunderland, 16**

It was still dark when Escher closed the door of his house in Victor's Village behind him. His father was still sleeping and he wouldn't want to wake him. He had a long day ahead of him, after all. By this time tomorrow Dante Sunderland would be in the Capitol, mentoring this year's tributes for the Hunger Games. He would need all the rest he could get.

Escher looked around him for signs of his familiar shadow, but she wasn't there yet. He hadn't really expected it either. He was earlier than usual. Nunally would still be asleep somewhere in the District, wherever it was that she lived.

He pondered that girl's strange behaviour as he started jogging. He just didn't understand it, which was surely why he was thinking about her so often these days. That must be the reason, because Escher didn't think about other people a lot, at all. He didn't have friends. It was just him and his dad. And Nunally then. Ever since he had saved her from those wannabe rapists about a year ago she had become his faithful shadow, never far from him whenever he was outside.

But there was no sign of her now. Escher wasn't disappointed or pleased. He hardly spared the girl a thought anyway. Nunally just was there, no matter what. Sometimes Escher did wonder if she even had a life besides watching him.

It was still slightly chilly, but the exercise made sure that Escher was soon sweating. He knew he was fast and there was no one out here, so he wasn't in danger of literally running into someone. Except for that brown-haired girl that was. Escher had no idea who she was, but she was up and running before the sun had even risen most days. But she hardly spared him a glance and he never wasn't one for greeting either. They had this weird ritual of looking at the other from the corner of their eyes and then going on as if they hadn't noticed the other one. Today he passed her on the way home. He was earlier than usual, because on a normal day he would meet her on the way from home. But then, she was rather late. Dawn was already breaking. She must have overslept today.

He looked at the worn watch at his wrist. His father would be up by now. If they would skip breakfast there would still be time to spar a little before reaping. After today he would be on his own until the Games had ended and he wouldn't have anyone to spar with for the entire period of time. He had better get in some last minute practise while he still could. And that attitude would most certainly please his adoptive dad. And Escher knew he would do anything to please his father, even when they weren't related by blood. Or maybe they were. Escher didn't know. Dante had never told him who his parents were or how he had even ended up in that orphanage. Maybe he didn't know. Escher didn't care much. Things just were the way they were.

**Lacey Devereux, 17**

The sight of the Justice building made her stop dead in her tracks. As much as she hated the sight of it and what it represented today, she feared it even more. The knots in her stomach increased in tenfold, making her want to throw out everything she had eaten today. But that would be a waste of that delicious apple and she forced it back.

_Don't be such a baby, Lacey_, she told herself sternly. _You are not going to make a scene of yourself, do you hear me?_

She searched for her mother's face in the crowd and gave her an encouraging smile. _I am not afraid. I'll be fine_, that smile was meant to convey. Lacey just suspected she did have some communication problems, since the worry on her mother's face increased in tenfold.

_You're not going to get reaped_, she ordered herself even though she knew perfectly well she had no control whatsoever over that. _You're all she's got. Dad left, but I won't_. Or she guessed he left. She didn't really know. He had been gone before she was even born and her mother didn't really talk him, at all. Lacey didn't even know his name.

She forced herself to take deep breaths and concentrate on something else, like the fact that her mother had made her wear a dress for example. She even looked girly now what with the skirt ending at some point above the knees. At least it was brown, not a too attention demanding colour.

Lacey forced herself to keep a mental rant at her mother for making her wear this throughout the film and the escort's silly chattering. Roman Jewel was an idiot with purple hair and matching eyes who seemed to think the Games were the best thing in the world. To top it off he also had an annoyingly high, girly voice that irritated her to no end. When all this would be over, Manny, Jasper and she would laugh themselves sick trying to mimic it.

_So, focus on that, Lacey_, she told herself. _Focus on after, not on now._

But her plan went right out the window as she saw Roman Jewel walk over to the girl's bowl, reaching his hand in it, searching for the slip that would please him.

He finally found one and walked back to the microphone. 'Are you as curious as I am?' he squeaked. There really was no other word for it.

_Will you just get it over with already? _Just a few more seconds and she would be able to breathe freely again.

Or maybe not.

Jewel opened the slip and read out the name. 'And the lucky one is… Lacey Devereux!'

She blinked. And she blinked again. The world seemed to have stopped moving, as was only appropriate as her life had just officially been ended.

**Escher Sunderland, 16**

The girl's name didn't ring any bells to him, but when she walked up to the stage, he knew who she was immediately. It was the running girl, the one he had seen almost every morning for the last three years. Her face was wiped completely blank and Escher could tell she was not going to make a scene. She was far too controlled for that, he knew. Se controlled her emotions well. It was impossible to decide what she felt.

He saw his father's eyes measuring her and he didn't seem too displeased. In his place Escher wouldn't be either. She could run at least and she looked like a fighter. She might just make it past the bloodbath.

_In two years that's going to be you on that stage_, was the thought that went through his head. That was the Plan, after all, the only reason his adoptive father had taken him in all those years ago: to grow his own Victor to make the best Games that had ever been played in Panem.

He would make it farther than the girl, Escher decided, but she might do well for a while, depending on the opposition and how well her alliances were. A lot came down to that, he guessed.

He glanced in the direction of the sixteen year old female section, catching Nunally looking at him. She quickly averted her eyes, flushing all red. _Strange girl._

Roman Jewel was finally done rejoicing over the fact that he had reaped a female tribute and now walked over to the boys' bowl. 'And now we all want to know who the male tribute will be this year, of course.'

Escher didn't really do feelings, especially about people that weren't his father, but he came close now. _What an idiot._

'And our male tribute is…' He waited for a non-existent drum roll. 'Escher Sunderland!'

That was unexpected. He would only volunteer in two years' time. This wasn't part of the Plan, not at all. But this was how it was now and while disappointed because of him being reaped before the end of his training, he didn't mind, not really.

Escher walked up to the stage, not glancing left or right. His eyes were focused on his dad, who looked a whole lot more affected than Escher himself. The disappointment hit him harder. Or maybe it was anger at his Plan being thwarted, he wasn't sure. But he knew he could do what his father wanted. He had been trained for it since he could walk.

Roman Jewel chattered on a little more and then forced him and Lacey (wasn't that her name?) to shake hands. She gave a hardly visible nod when she recognised him. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he nodded as well. It seemed polite.

Jewel ushered them into the Justice building and into a room where people could say their goodbyes to him, but Escher knew already no one would be coming. His father would mentor him, so he would see him on the train and there were no other people he knew, or wanted to know for that matter.

So he didn't understand what was happening when the door flew open and a girl with messy blonde hair and red tear-stained eyes burst into the room and into his arms. He staggered back and almost lost his balance when she crashed into him. _What on earth…?_

'Nunally?' he asked when he recognised the girl, trying to get her to let him go, quite unsuccessfully. 'What are you doing here?' His voice sounded cold, detached even.

Maybe that was what made her look up in the end. 'I love you,' she confessed, completely out of the blue.

The impact was as big as if she had crashed into him again; he staggered back. Again. 'I beg your pardon?'

'Ever since you saved me,' she blurted out. 'I've been stalking you, you know.' Oh, I know. 'And I know you can win this. You've been training all your life and you can come home and we can get married and have kids, three of them.'

Escher wasn't easy to surprise, but he had to admit that he absolutely hadn't seen this one coming, no, not at all. She was _what_? In _love_ with him? The stalking he had known about, but not the part about the love, the marriage and the three kids. His mouth opened, but no sound came out, even if he had known what to say. And he had no idea whatsoever.

'Do you have a token yet?' she asked suddenly.

Well, at least that question was easy to answer. 'No.'

She produced something from her pocket and pushed it in his hand. 'For you,' she told him. 'To remind you.' She had fled from the room before he had the chance to say something.

He looked down at his hand, at the object he was holding. A joker playing card? _What on earth…?_

**Lacey Devereux, 17**

The Justice building felt threatening, but maybe that only was because she was so afraid of what came after this. The Games. Her own death. Her stomach was in danger of heaving again.

Her mother's arrival saved her from throwing up over the expensive looking carpet. Lia just held her daughter in a tight embrace, so that Lacey couldn't see her face. But she didn't need to. Her mother's shoulders betrayed that she was crying.

'You win, girl,' she kept repeating, over and over again. 'You win and you come home. Promise me, Lacey, promise me.'

And Lacey did the only thing she could do for her mother now, the last thing she could do. 'I promise,' she said, knowing it was a lie as she did so. There would be no coming back. But her mother needed to believe that she did and Lacey told her what she needed to hear. 'I'm coming back. I promise.'

Lia let go off her and handed District Eight's new female tribute, because that was what she was now, a piece of jewellery, a bracelet. A very expensive looking bracelet, one they could never ever afford.

'Was that…?' Lacey let her voice trail off.

'A gift.' The tone in Lia's voice made it perfectly clear who the gift was from.

'From dad.'

Lia neither confirmed nor denied it, which was confirmation enough. 'Be safe,' she urged her. 'And come back.'

And she was gone, only to be replaced immediately by Manny and Jasper, who caught her in a bearlike hug. 'You can do this, Lace,' Manny told her. 'You just glare at them and they all fall down dead at your feet.'

Maybe this was what she needed, a bit of light-heartedness to forget her fear. So she went with it. 'Then how come you two are still alive?'

'Superpowers,' Jasper said, trying to come across as mysterious, with trying being the operative word. 'Listen, Lace, just stay away from the Careers, avoid the bloodbath and just keep out of everyone's way, and you'll be just fine.'

'And you do have a rather good right hook in case they come too close,' Manny added. 'You practised that one on me last week, remember?'

Lacey could only nod, the nerves returning as she heard her friends' advice, making her realise that this was very real and that before too long she would be in that arena. _This is happening. I'm in the Hunger Games. I'm going to die._ Because no matter what Jasper and Manny said, that was bound to happen.

'You'll come back, Lace,' Manny ordered her.

And she told them what they needed to hear too. 'Sure,' she agreed, even when she knew it was a huge lie. 'Sure I'll come back.'

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**All the spots are now filled or reserved, except the district 1 male, which I'm not sure has been reserved. Could that person let me know please? If that one isn't filled or officially reserved by Tuesday, the spot will go open again, so keep an eye on it.**

**Having said that, I haven't received a single bloodbath tribute yet, so what I'm going to do is this. After reapings I will place a poll on my profile and let you lot decide. I'll go with the majority of votes, unless I have an ulterior motive. **

**And please review. It makes me really happy to know what you all think.**


	3. Chapter 3 - District 2 Reaping

**Hello dear readers. I had some time left and so I decided to write another reaping. The family picked the number two today, so here you have it: the district 2 reaping. I hope I got the characters right. Enjoy reading and please leave me a review if you've got a moment!**

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**Chapter 3 **

**District 2 reaping**

**Jacob Aaron Stoneman, 18**

The Training Academy was all but deserted in the early hours of the morning, but Jacob didn't really mind. It did have its advantages to be alone and not hear the endless chatter of the other boys and girls training here. Now he had the training centre all to himself.

There were unlikely to be many people coming in today. There never were on reaping day. Everyone took the day off to speculate about who would and wouldn't volunteer for this year's Hunger Games, making bets on it, exchange opinions on how much chance certain individuals would stand.

Today, however, no one would bet on the male tribute from District Two this year. They all knew it was going to be one Jacob Aaron Stoneman, the orphaned guy, who was a true devil when someone gave him a weapon.

_Things will be better_, he promised himself, same as every morning. He picked up a sword and started his routine. _After the Games everything will be better_. After the Games he would have a proper house and people would remember his name for different reasons than because of him being orphaned at age five. He couldn't say how much he longed for that day. All his life he had heard people pitying him for that tragic accident, never to his face. The whispers had always been behind his back. He used to hit the person responsible, hard, but the whispering didn't stop. It just didn't take place within his earshot anymore.

But he couldn't deny that he felt frustrated by it. True, no one doubted his abilities here, but it was always mixed up with the pity, the unspoken thought that he was only doing this to prove that he was not a softie, that he was only doing this to get a better life. The point was that there was some truth in their whispering and it frustrated Jacob to almost no end.

He decapitated a training dummy almost thoughtlessly. There wasn't any real challenge in dummies anymore. They were too easy: unmoving, defenceless and about as dangerous as a new-born baby. He liked to spar with a real person, someone who would make him work for it. This was just pointless.

He was about to quit, when he heard a familiar voice behind him. 'I thought I'd find you here.'

Jacob put his sword away. 'Natalya,' he acknowledged without looking up.

'I brought you some breakfast,' she announced, seating herself on the ground. 'I went over to John's and he said you hadn't collected your bread for today.'

He seated himself opposite her. 'I had some leftovers from yesterday.'

'Yes, and I had a Capitol feast last night,' she shot back, using that phrase to tell him exactly how much she believed of that speech.

And of course she was spot on. 'I decided to skip breakfast, get in some last minute practise.'

'Idiot,' she said mildly. 'Come on, eat. You're going to faint at the reaping and miss your chance to volunteer if you don't get some food in your stomach.'

'Like that's likely to happen!' he countered, but he accepted the bread and sunk his teeth in it. He would never admit it to anyone but himself, but it felt good to eat something. 'Any thoughts on who my district partner is going to be?'

Natalya wasn't a real gossipy kind of girl, but no one who stepped foot outside today could possibly miss the heated arguments on this year's tributes. It would go on all morning until the reaping and after the reaping the winners would collect their money and then the betting would start anew, this time about how much chance the tributes stood in the arena.

Natalya shook her head. 'Nope,' she replied. 'There's a lot of names going around there. There are a lot of bets on someone from the very extended Penance-Gibbs clan.'

Jacob huffed. 'Safe bet,' he commented. 'There's so many of them you're almost bound to be right. How many are there of them anyway?'

Natalya stole a piece of his bread and laughed. 'My thoughts exactly. Some people also say Gina Rock thinks about volunteering.'

That caused him to almost choke on his bread, with laughter. 'What, that tiny seventeen year old whose aim is so bad she hit the dummy to the far right instead of the middle one at knife throwing?'

'The very one.' His best friend slowly chewed on her, or rather his, bread. 'And of course Ria Nuts boats about planning to volunteer, but nothing new there.'

'Like that is ever going to happen.' Ria's surname wasn't really Nuts. It was a nickname and it was crystal clear to everyone who knew her why she was called that. It was common knowledge in District Two that Ria wasn't in her right mind, but in her defence, she had never been. It was being said that the untimely death of her parents had driven her mad. Jacob for one, supported that theory.

'So,' he started, swallowing the last of his bread. 'And what about the males?'

She nudged him. 'Just one name.'

Just as it should be.

**Rosemary Gibbs, 17**

It was hard to get a bit of peace and quiet on the Gibbs estate around reaping day. Only when you got up really early and sneaked out of the house as softly as you possibly could and you managed not to wake anyone, you might just manage it. Rosemary Gibbs had become rather skilled at it and a good thing it was too.

It was reaping day today and the house was just full. No, cramped was probably a better word. And she needed to get up before the whole bloody lot opened their eyes and started making so much noise the Capitol could probably hear it. And she had just about enough of it.

Romy, as she'd much rather be called, went over her mental list one more time before leaving her room. _Reaping clothes, check. Red lipstick, check_. _Raw carrots, check_. And now it was just a matter of getting out before everyone woke.

Well, at least Rain was still asleep on the mattress they had put on the floor. On days like these there were just too few beds, or too many people, depending on how you looked at it. Romy preferred to think of it as too many people, who all of them refused to take her seriously. It was dramatic.

Romy's room was on the far end of the corridor, as far away from the stairs as could possibly be. First she had to cross all the rooms and make sure no one got up. From where she was standing it almost looked like an impossible task.

_Come on, Romy, don't be such a baby_, she told herself. _It's not like you couldn't deal with all of them._

And so she started her risky journey. First she had to pass the room that normally belonged to Nolan, but now harboured all three of her brothers, including Lennon. Why the annoying I'm-the-Victor-so-I-am-great-idiot couldn't have stayed in his house across the street was a mystery to her. Then past her parents room, her aunt Lucinda, correction Auntie Lu, uncle Darvey and then past the room her sister Dianthe and cousin Paisley shared and then, finally, past what normally was Levi's room, but since he was staying with Nolan, the room was now taken by her cousins Jett and Kipton.

She held her breath when she finally came to the stairs, but it all appeared to be very peaceful and very quiet, apart from Kipton's snores that could have woken the dead.

_You did it_, she congratulated herself, getting down the stairs and out of the house as fast as she could.

It wasn't that she didn't like her family, she pondered as she slowly strolled down the street, chewing on one of the carrots. But the feeling was ambivalent at the very least. Having three Victors and several other big guys (and girls) in the family did mean they all were rather full of themselves, looking down on the family members that hadn't proved themselves yet. That was all okay with Nolan, who didn't do anything but partying. He just didn't care. And Rain never did a thing either, yet no one seemed to care. The same was true for Levi. Yet they all loved picking on Romy and she could not for the life of her figure why.

Yes, you do. Because she secretly loved the fights, the quick witticisms and the adrenaline that came with it. She loved the feeling of being alive, not holding back and just lash out with either her weapon or her tongue, or both. It would just seem that her family didn't like her insults very well. Not that she could blame them. In their place she wouldn't like to be called 'a fat cow with the brains of a slug' either. But she'd die before she admit to actually loving to fight. She was sure that announcement would succeed in turning quite the number of heads and not in a good way. They'd probably look at her as if not Ria Nuts but Rosemary Gibbs was the District's lunatic. No, thanks very much.

'Romy! Rosemary!' The loud calling of her name finally made her look up, and made her realise she had just eaten the last one of her carrots. _Oh, crap_.

She turned on the spot. 'Hey, Sebastian. You're up early.'

'I could say the same about you,' he shot back.

'I needed an escape,' she told him. 'It's reaping day, remember? And they're all there. the lot of them. Not counting my father's part of the family.'

Her boyfriend hooked his arm through hers as they walked down to wherever it was that they were going. 'I thought you said you liked your family?' he asked, confused.

'I do,' she told him. 'But my family should come in small quantities and for a very limited amount of time for full appreciation.'

That got a laugh out of him. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek. 'You could come over to my place, have breakfast there.'

'Yes to the first, no to the second,' Romy replied. 'I already ate. Had I known you were coming, I would have saved you some carrots.'

As predicted his nose wrinkled in disgust. 'Ugh, Romy. That's just gross. And for breakfast at that!'

She shrugged. 'It's a gift. Can I stay at your place until reaping?'

He nudged her. 'Like you wouldn't know you could.'

'And here I was thinking you were always telling me I should work on my manners. There's just no pleasing you sometimes, is there?' she teased back.

She loved Sebastian to pieces and still thought it a miracle that the two of them were actually together. They were as different as day to night. She came from a Victor's family, he was the son of two healers from District Six, who hated the Hunger Games. She loved fighting, he hated it. Yet somehow they had ended up together. There had to be some truth in that saying about opposites attracting.

Well, who cared about all this anyway, Romy thought as they walked down to the reaping several hours later. Sebastian's parents had let het use the bathroom to change. She was altogether pleased with her own appearance, with the red skirt and the top that showed the perfectly smooth skin of her stomach, because it wasn't low enough.

_Auntie Lu's going to have a heart attack_. That though pleased her more than it probably should, but for the last day she had been trying to get Romy to wear that awful red dress that didn't match with her also red hair. There was just no way she was going to wear that monstrosity, one of the reasons she had sneaked out so early that morning.

'I'm going to face my family,' she told Sebastian when she spotted them. 'I'll see you later.'

He kissed her on the lips and winked at her. 'Maybe not the small quantities, but at least the limited amount of time, eh? See you after reaping!' he was gone before she could comment.

_You cheeky so-and-so_. He really was the only one who could verbally keep up with her, which might be why she liked him so much. She shook her head in mild amusement and walked off to her family.

'Rosemary, look at what you've done!' There was no mistaking that annoyed wailing, or the use of her full name.

'Good afternoon, Auntie Lu,' Romy greeted politely.

'Where's the dress?' Her aunt wasted no time in getting to the point.

She decided to play innocent. 'What dress?'

It wasn't working. 'You know what dress!' Rain accused her.

'Shut it, Rain.' The two girls might look alike, so much that they could pass as sisters, but that was where the resemblance stopped. Because Rain was an annoying, blackmailing, gossipy and loud-mouthed slut, and Romy was everything Rain was not. Or that was what she liked to think anyway.

'Come on, girl,' Auntie Lu said impatiently. 'There's still time to change. Put on that dress and you'll be right as Rain.'

_And that joke is seriously getting old_. No, forget the old. The joke was positively ancient. 'Not going to happen,' she told them all.

'Romy…' Rain started that irritating little girl's wail.

The next moment Romy's fist collided with Rain's eye. The girl staggered back, glaring at Romy with her good eye. 'You gave me a black eye!'

Romy shrugged, not impressed. 'It matches your dress.' From the corner of her eye she could swear she saw her father laughing. 'See you after reaping.' She made a run for it before anyone could come up with an intelligent reply and tried to ignore the many accusations of 'Coward!' that were shouted after her, in many different voices. These days she was so good in convincing herself that she didn't hear them that she really almost didn't anymore.

The escort was already babbling away as Romy took her place beside her friend Coralie. 'Sorry I'm late,' she whispered.

'What took you so long?' she hissed back. 'Caught up with Sebastian again?'

Romy chose to ignore that. 'Minor disagreement with the dreary cousin.'

Coralie chuckled. 'That bad?'

'She came out with a shiner, I with nothing.' And she was proud of it. 'But, let's pay attention, shall we? I don't think we're going to make much of an impression chattering through the reaping.'

The escort, a positively ridiculous Capitol woman with orange hair by the name of Julia Light was already walking over to the girl's bowl, wasting no time in finding a slip and taking it over to the microphone. 'Rain Penance!' she announced.

Rain stood some meters away, but even from where Romy stood she could see the vicious gleam in her cousin's eyes. Rain was a good fighter, strong fast. She would make it out alive. She would take the glory and rub it in until Romy would start going as mad as Ria Nuts. _No way._

'I volunteer!' she called out.

**Jacob Aaron Stoneman, 18**

Jacob didn't even look up as he heard the volunteering shout coming from somewhere in the girl's section. He did look up however as the reaped girl, one Rain Penance, sporting a big black eye, positively glared at the girl who was taking her place. They had the same red hair as Rain and looked so much like her that they were probably sisters. How charming. He was getting a sentimental self-sacrificing girl for a district partner. Great.

The volunteer was helped up the stage. Well, at least she didn't suffer from a lack of self-confidence. She gazed over the crowd looking very, very pleased with herself. Maybe he shouldn't be too quick to underestimate her.

'And who are you, dear?' Julia asked.

'Rosemary Gibbs,' the girl replied. Her face twisted in a smirk. 'Beat you, Rain,' she teased the reaped girl who looked like she was positively seething. Some family rivalry or something, Jacob suspected.

Spirited, that was what she was. She might actually do well in the Career alliance.

'Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say we're glad to have you,' Julia said enthusiastically. 'And now, let's choose our brave male tribute.' She marched over to the boy's bowl, selected a slip and read a name Jacob didn't even hear.

This was what he had been waiting for, what he had been training for ever since his parents died. This was his chance, his final chance of getting into the Hunger Games, of winning and finally gain the respect of the people in this District. Victor's Village, here I come. 'I volunteer!' he shouted.

People nodded at him respectfully as he made his way up the stage. There were no looks of surprise now, as there had been when Rosemary Gibbs volunteered. His volunteering had been expected and, according to Natalya, there hadn't even been any bets against it. Everyone expected it of him.

'Wow, aren't you a dashing young man,' Julia cooed. Jacob tried to think of another word for it, but his mind failed to come up with any. 'Will you please tell us all your name?'

_You're the only one who doesn't know it yet_. 'Jacob Stoneman.'

'And a pretty name as well. Now, come on, shake hands.' Julia seemed just too excited. If it wasn't so extremely annoying, it might have been hilarious.

He met Rosemary's grey eyes. They were kind of distracted looking. Whatever she was thinking about, it clearly wasn't the reaping. But she gave him a small nod, signalling that she had noticed him. Shame he would have to kill her. She seemed like a nice girl.

'I present you your tributes for this year's Hunger Games: Rosemary Gibbs and Jacob Stoneman!' Julia exclaimed, before guiding them both into the Justice building.

_Well, at least that circus is out of the way_. Now it was just the goodbyes and he would be off to do what he knew he did best: the Hunger Games, fighting and winning.

The head trainer, Eddard, came in first. 'Well done, boy. Well done,' he told Jacob, grabbing his hand in a firm grip. From anyone else the patronising "boy" might have been annoying, but not from Eddard. The man was like a father to Jacob. 'You can do this, you know.'

'I know.'

'You just make sure you come back. We do need you to make our weapons.'

He was good in making them, he knew that, but that would not be the reason he would be returning. He would return because he wanted to win for himself, not for anyone else.

Eddard gave him a few last pointers and was then replaced by John and Natalya. The latter caught him in a bearlike hug. 'Told you,' she called in a sing-song voice. 'Told you there was no one else!'

John grinned. 'Please tell her she's right. That might just shut her up.'

'All right, you're right. Hear, I admit it.' Jacob was so excited by now that he didn't really mind their excitement. 'Now you've got to admit I was right about something.' That was some kind of silly game they had played years ago.

'Okay, you were right about Ria Nuts not volunteering,' she offered immediately. 'So, now we wish you the very best of luck and we make you promise to invite us over once you're settled in your new Victor house.'

That was a promise easily made. 'Sure,' he agreed.

'Well, you'd better,' John warned him. 'I swear she'll drive you crazy if you won't. And you know how maddening she can be.'

Jacob grinned at his friend. 'Don't I know it.' He watched after them as they left the room and shut the door behind them. It had begun.

**Rosemary Gibbs, 17**

The house had felt cramped, but it was only now Romy understood the real meaning of it. There was no room left to breathe, or that was what it felt like, and the fact that there were several very not amused people in this room didn't really help either.

Her entire family had squeezed itself in here in one go, leaving no room for anyone else. _It's like I've entered the madhouse here_. Nolan was clapping enthusiastically to her, but Romy had smelled the alcohol on his breath and knew exactly what was causing it. Auntie Lu was enthusiastic as well, but only because she was convinced someone in the Capitol would surely make her look so pretty once they had done something about 'that horrible hair of yours'. Romy silently promised herself not to let the stylists touch her hair, if only to spite her aunt.

But those two were relatively easy to ignore. The shouting was much harder. Rain was, understandably, livid about Romy taking her "rightful" place in the Games, but Romy was kind of used to that by now. And that Levi was backing Rain up was no news to anyone either.

'Get a grip, Rain,' she told her cousin, trying to look as bored as she possible could. 'If I hadn't volunteered, someone else would have.'

'That's not the point!' Rain insisted. 'It was rude.'

'I don't know what you're fussing about,' Romy remarked with perfect indifference. 'Not even the most skilled stylist would have been able to mask that beautiful shiner of yours. You should try again next year, when it's looking better.'

If looks could kill, Romy would have been dead long before she could get to the arena. She was relieved that the Peacekeeper chose that moment to tell them time was up. The whole family started leaving, giving her father, who had been remarkably quiet until then, to catch her in a massive hug. Romy didn't need words to know that he was sad over her leaving.

'I'll be back,' she promised. 'You just wait and see.'

He merely nodded. It was her mother that spoke. 'You go and make me proud.' They were gone before she could say another word.

Paisley came, nodded and gave her a pat on the back. _Well, wonders never cease. Did she really just wish me luck?_

She was just starting to feel slightly pleased when she realised Lennon, the Victor brother and her mentor to be, was still in the room. His icy gaze should have sent shivers down her spine, but as it was, the shock of seeing him, so close, was keeping her from it.

He shook his head, disapproving. 'You don't stand a chance.'

Romy was thinking of something that would come across as a strong reply, but was saved from her own tongue and her brother by the arrival of her little group of friends. Coralie almost literally flew in her arms crying.

'Whoa!' Romy exclaimed. 'Hold your horses.'

'You can't go!' Coralie sobbed.

From over her friend's shoulder she could see Lennon smirk. 'You don't stand a chance,' he mouthed at her. The thought of that seemed to please him. He had left the room before Romy could come up with a sensible reply.

'I am going,' she told Coralie. 'Nothing to be done about it.'

'Awesome!' Martha commented. 'Honestly, Romy, did you see Rain's face?'

Martha and her brother Rory, two of her closest friends, seemed to be a whole lot more optimistic than Coralie, which was a relief.

'I may have noticed it, yes,' she teased. 'Yes, she didn't look too pleased with me now, did she?'

Rory gave her a big grin as Martha chuckled. He tossed her something and Romy had to let go of Coralie in order to catch it.

'What's that?' she demanded.

'Well, people who actually do have eyes call it a ring,' he informed her. 'You know, jewellery you could wear around your finger?'

'I may have heard about it once or twice,' she teased back. 'What's it for?'

'Ever heard of this thing called a token?' he shot back. 'That's what this is. And you're going to wear it.'

Romy obediently slipped it around her finger. 'Yes, sir. Martha, is Sebastian outside already?'

Her friend bit her lip and averted her eyes.

'Martha?' she urged.

'He isn't coming,' the younger girl said softly.

That was like a physical blow. Of course she knew that Sebastian didn't like the Games, and he wouldn't support her decision to volunteer, but she had expected him to be here for her, even when he disagreed with what she'd done. Because that was what a boyfriend did, didn't he?

'He isn't coming?' she repeated, her voice dangerously low. She could feel her blood starting to boil. 'Well, you can tell him that if his morals interfere with saying goodbye to his own freaking _girlfriend_, who, for his information, might just _die_,' she ignored Coralie's whimpering at that word, 'he can better take a reality check, because there's bound to be something very wrong with his head.'

But her anger only masked the hurt and when her friends were finally told to leave, she hit the wall in frustration. _For heaven's sake, Sebastian! You should have been here!_ And then she allowed herself to cry. _What a freaking mess_.

* * *

**That's it for today. I would like to remind you that some of you still have a reservation for some spots. I only hold reservations for a week, so some of you only have a few days left to submit.**

**I hope you enjoyed this piece. Let me know your thoughts please!**


	4. Chapter 4 - District 7 Reaping

**Hello everyone, here's the new chapter. Sorry it took so long, but the university is doing its best to keep me occupied. Anyway, updates should become more frequent after January. I'm trying to find an update scheme that will work.**

**Anyway, two people reserved a spot and didn't submit the tribute for it, which means that this SYOT is open again. Feel free to submit, I'd say.**

**In the meantime, enjoy the chapter and please review. Nothing makes me happier.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**District 7 reaping**

**Sophia Greenleaf, 14**

Sophia woke to the slamming front door at half past six in the morning. She knew it was her father going out to work, trying to work a bit before the reapings, nothing new. She turned on her other side and tried to get another hour of sleep. But she was awake now and it was no use at all trying to go back to sleep. The light was creeping into the room now as well.

_Better get out, girl_, Sophia thought at herself.

And she did, although she had no idea what to do with herself now. Her mother was still asleep, there was no school because of reaping day and she doubted her friends would be out and about so early in the morning. But staying inside the silent house didn't look like a tempting prospect either, so in the end she settled for grabbing breakfast with her, eating it as she walked through the district in search for a familiar face.

She found one opposite the district's main store. Or rather, it found her.

'Hey, Sophia! Over here!'

Her head swivelled in the direction of the noise, spotting her best friends Cara and Leah sitting under the big oak tree in the square.

'You're up early,' she commented, joining them. 'How come?'

'Miss Talltrunk, of course,' Leah replied, grimacing. 'She thought it would be funny to throw things at our windows to make sure we didn't get the chance to sleep in on the one day we don't have school.'

'Stupid, annoying…,' Cara started a constant stream of curses under her breath.

'… scheming bitch?' Leah finished helpfully with a grin on her face. 'Hey, So, you don't mean to say you escaped Miss Perfect's attempts at waking you up?'

Sophia shrugged. 'Guess I did. I was awake anyway. My dad left quite early this morning. For work,' she clarified as her friends shot her confused looks.

'I am sorry to say, So, but your dad is about the worst workaholic I've ever heard about,' Leah declared.

'Tell me all about it,' Sophia muttered. Working was all her dad ever did. He said it was to make sure that they wouldn't live in poverty, and they didn't. But the way things were now, she hardly knew her own father at all.

'Let's get in the tree,' Cara proposed suddenly.

The other two girls frowned at her. 'Why would we want to climb in the tree?' Leah demanded. 'I'll have you know that this is my reaping dress and my mother is going to throw a fit if I make it dirty.'

Cara shrugged. 'It's your choice. But I'd rather face my mum's wrath than Elizabeth Talltrunk's bullying today.'

'Shit!' Sophia muttered, her eyes quickly scanning the place for their personal demon. 'Where?'

'North end of square,' Cara replied. The quiet but clever girl was already making a run, or rather climb for it, with Leah hot on her heels.

Sophia almost automatically glanced in the wrong direction.

'That's south, silly,' Cara hissed. 'Hurry up now, will you? She'll see us and the we won't have any peace for the rest of the day.'

Now she caught sight of the bullying girl. Fortunately it looked like she hadn't noticed her favourite victims yet, but that couldn't last much longer. Sophia knew that face. Elizabeth was on the warpath.

'Hurry up, So,' Leah's voice came from somewhere above her. 'If you're quite done assessing the situation, could you please get up here now?'

She didn't need to be told twice. Making sure Elizabeth wasn't looking in her direction she quickly climbed up the tree out of sight. She shouldn't have hesitated any longer. Elizabeth's eyes searched the square and when she didn't spot what she was looking for, the expression on her face would have sufficed to turn milk sour. She looked one last time and then marched off.

Sophia let out a breath she didn't realise she had been holding. 'That was close.'

**Flynn Wade Smythe, 15**

Flynn was just opening the shop as he saw his three classmates literally fleeing into the big oak in the middle of the square. He opened the door of the shop and immediately saw the reason for it: Elizabeth Talltrunk, the school's very own archbully. Better get out of her line of sight before she saw him.

'Come on, Flynn, we haven't got all day,' his mother called from behind the counter.

All too true, he supposed, with the reapings being today. He shuddered at the thought of them, even though he didn't want to. He knew he had very little chance of actually being reaped, because he took no tesserae, as lots of other kids in the district did, but there was something about the reapings and the Capitol for that matter, that never failed to intimidate him.

'Coming, mum.' He walked back to her, taking a box with him on the way back.

There was at least one good thing about the reapings, he pondered as he started filling up the shelves. People did want to celebrate that they had made it out of another reaping unscathed tonight, so they spent a little extra money on food they couldn't normally afford. Since that meant extra income for the shop, he couldn't really hate reaping day, not really, not when that was their own guarantee of making a bit more money. With some luck they could afford some small luxuries themselves at the end of the day.

'Hey, Flynn.'

Flynn didn't even need to turn around to know who that voice belonged to. 'Hey, Harley. What are you doing here?'

'Well, this is the main store, isn't it?' his best friend joked. 'And mum has decreed I should take it upon myself to carry her heavy loads back home again.'

Flynn glanced back to the counter where Harley's mother was busy getting the supplies for the feast that would be held tonight. 'I see. You didn't come socialising, then?'

Harley snorted. 'Aren't you too busy for that today? You're supposed to help your mum out, aren't you?'

'We could use an extra pair of hands,' Flynn hinted. It wasn't that he disliked working in the shop, quite the contrary, but today would be a busy day and since Harley was a bit taller than him, he wouldn't have a problem reaching the highest shelves. 'Come on, it could be fun.'

'Doubt your mother agrees,' Harley remarked. 'Last time she wasn't too amused either.'

There was no denying that. 'Well, you didn't mean to drop those bags of flour, did you? Anyway, it will be s busy she'll hardly notice anyway. And I could really, really use the help.' He gave his friend a pleading look. 'Please?'

Harley sighed, annoyed. 'Fine!' he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. 'but next year just enlist your brother or something.'

'Darius is working,' Flynn felt obliged to point out. 'You know that.'

Harley suddenly realised his mouth had gotten ahead of him. 'Oops. Sorry, mate. I didn't mean it like that.'

'I know you didn't.' _And with your family still intact, how could you know? Your father hasn't left because he's a thief and your siblings don't need to work their arses off to keep the household afloat._ But Flynn immediately bit back those comments. Harley really didn't mean anything by it.

So instead he opted on showing his best friend a teasing grin. 'I might think about forgiveness if you help me out here today.'

'It's a deal,' Harley agreed. 'But let me play glorified shopping cart for my mum first, will you? I'll come straight back.'

'It's a deal,' Flynn agreed. It looked like today could be good after all.

**Sophia Greenleaf, 14**

The square was packed with people by the time the Greenleaf family arrived and even though she didn't want to, Sophia could feel the nerves taking hold of her stomach, as they always did.

'You'll be fine,' her sister Milly told her. 'You don't take tesserae, so the odds are definitely "in your favour".' That last bit was spoken in exactly the same voice that overenthusiastic Capitol woman always spoke them.

Sophia chuckled.

'So, you'll be fine,' Milly repeated.

'I'll be fine,' Sophia nodded, not really believing it until after the reapings had finished.

She signed in and started to look for her friends in her age group. It was so crowded here she could barely see three meters ahead of her.

She was yanked to the right abruptly. 'Here, silly,' Leah's voice said.

'Leah!' Because of the shock it came out louder than she had intended. 'You scared me!'

Her friend looked wholly unconcerned. 'Sorry about that,' she apologised, not sounding sorry at all. 'But I thought you would want to be saved an encounter with the lovely Elizabeth.' She beckoned at a point four meters before them, where said girl was having a conversation with her friends.

'At all costs,' she agreed.

The reapings started soon after, with the Treaty of Treason being read and the film being shown.

'I swear they're doing the same one each and every year,' Leah muttered under her breath.

'Not true,' Cara objected. 'They do change the order of the sequences every three to four years.'

Leah rolled her eyes. 'As I was saying.'

The Capitol woman, a ridiculous looking person with silver hair (as in literally silver) and golden eyes, stepped forward on heels that were so high Sophia was actually surprised she hadn't fallen yet. 'I am so happy to be back in the lovely District Seven again,' she sighed in the microphone. 'And how glad I am to see all these beautiful children here before me. I wish you Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favour!' Having said that, she became a lot more business-like straight away. 'And now, let us choose our brave female tribute!'

'Don't know if brave has anything to do with it,' Leah muttered darkly, glancing at the youngest kids. Some of them were practically trembling with fear.

Sophia didn't react. The nerves that had been disappearing since meeting up with her friends returned with a vengeance. She held her hands clenched into fists as the escort, Antonia Ice, walked over to the girls' bowl, selected a slip of paper and walked back to the microphone. 'Sophia Greenleaf!' she announced.

In the silence that followed she could feel the tears rolling down her face.

**Flynn Wade Smythe, 15**

Flynn felt almost sick as he heard the name of his classmate being called out. True, he didn't really know her that well, but still. It always was painful to see someone you knew being reaped, knowing there was almost no chance at all that they would return.

Sophia was escorted up to the stage, her eyes red and swollen. She looked like she was on the verge of collapse, but she held herself together admirably even as the escort cooed her approval. Stupid woman. She should try living here for a while and see for herself how "great" it was to live here.

'And then, let us choose our male tribute for the fifty-first annual Hunger Games!' Antonia announced. The enthusiasm was just sickening.

She walked over to the boys' bowl and picked out a name. 'Flynn Smythe!' she exclaimed.

No. No. No. This could not be happening. This was some kind of sick joke, surely. He didn't take tesserae, he never had. His name was in that bowl so few times compared to the other kids. The chance of being reaped was so small! And yet, here he stood, having just heard his name called as a tribute for the Hunger Games.

If he walked up to that stage now, he knew he would never come back again. the Hunger Games were a sure death sentence for almost everyone that was not at least over sixteen and somewhat trained. Flynn knew that. He knew it all too well and he wanted to break down in tears because it was just so unfair.

Harley's not so gentle nudge in the side snapped him out of it. 'Don't!' his friend hissed. 'Do not give them the satisfaction. Don't, Flynn.'

He nodded. Harley was right. He would not give them the satisfaction of seeing him cry like a baby. So he pulled himself together and walked slowly to the stage, ignoring Antonia's big smile best he could.

'And now we have our two absolutely lovely tributes for this year's annual Hunger Games!' Antonia squeaked, almost bouncing with excitement as she took a hand of each of them and held them high to present them to the public. 'Give a warm applause for Sophia Greenleaf and Flynn Smythe!'

Almost nobody clapped. After all that would mean that people actually approved of what happened here and they didn't. No one did.

Antonia couldn't be bothered by it. 'Come on, shake hands,' she encouraged them.

They did, nodding at the other in respect as they did so. Flynn knew Sophia not very well, but they had been classmates. Maybe they could team up for this dangerous game as well. It would be nice to have someone on his side that he actually knew and trusted.

Antonia ushered them into the Justice building. Sophia was led to a room and Flynn to another, awaiting his visitors. And he didn't need to wait long. His mother and brother came in. Marie Smythe burst through the door, already in tears, crushing her youngest son in a hug that felt like she would never ever want to let him go. 'My baby,' she whispered. 'My baby.'

As embarrassing as that might be, Flynn couldn't bring himself to be bothered by it now. He might as well let her now. It was most likely the last time he would see her.

'Let him go, mum,' Darius's calm voice interrupted his mother's wails. 'Flynn will do just fine.' That were only words though. Flynn could hear the uncertainty that was lying just beneath the surface. But he appreciated what his big brother was doing, looking out for him as much as he possibly could. As he had always done, even though Flynn hadn't always liked it.

'Yes, I'll be just fine,' he repeated, trying to put on a brave face. 'I'll be fine, mum.'

'Oh, Flynny.' His mother was still crying, not preparing to let go just yet. Darius needed to help her and lead her out of the room.

'We'll be rooting for you, little brother,' Darius promised.

Flynn nodded. 'Thank you.'

His family was immediately replaced by Harley. He obviously didn't know what to do with himself, so in the end Flynn took the decision out of his hands and gave his best friends a hug. 'You're going to be fine, right?'

Harley looked at him, confused. 'Shouldn't I be asking you that question?' he demanded.

Flynn shrugged, not trying to show how scared he really was. 'You looked like you were about to faint.' _I know I looked like I was about to_.

'I can help your mum from now on.' Harley looked at his shoes as he said that. 'On reaping days, in the store.'

Flynn summoned up a smile. 'As long as you don't drop the bags of flour I'm sure she'd love the help.'

That got a chuckle out of his friend. 'I'm sure she'd chase me out of the shop. But seriously, Flynn, I'd much rather not need to help her. Just don't die, please?'

He was gone before Flynn could react.

**Sophia Greenleaf, 14**

As soon as they had left her on her own she surrendered to the tears that had had been wanting to escape ever since she had heard that she was reaped to compete in the Hunger Games. She was going to die, she was never going back. She would be shipped off to the Capitol and killed for its citizens' amusement.

She had never really given the Hunger Games much thought. That was something that happened to other people, not to her. But here she was, reaped to compete.

The door was almost swung off its hinges as her parents and sister came in. Her father caught her in an embrace and muttered comforting words. Sophia could feel herself freeze in spite of herself. She had never been close with him because he was never home and she couldn't just let herself be hugged by a practical stranger.

Maybe he noticed, maybe he didn't. Either way he let her go and he was replaced by her mother and Milly, who hugged her at the same time. Both of them had been crying. She could tell it by their eyes, that were red. Milly at least had regained some sort of control over herself, but her mother was still weeping.

'You can do this, little sis,' Milly told her. 'You're smart, you know about edible plants and you can throw axes. And you can climb trees like no other. You can do this.'

Sophia nodded.

Her mother must have seen she wasn't convinced. 'You can, Sophia. I know you can. Stay away from everyone, wait it out. You can stay hidden, especially if there are trees.'

Trees. If there were trees in the arena she would stand a chance. If only there were trees. But it was a start, a ray of hope in all the misery. And so she nodded. 'I'll stick to the trees,' she promised them.

Soon after the Peacekeeper came to tell them that time was up and her family was led away. The door had hardly closed behind them before Leah and Cara came in, knocking her almost off her feet as they all but jumped in her arms.

'It's not fair!' Cara exclaimed. 'Your name was only in there three times! The chances were so small, only…'

Leah cut her off. 'No maths now please, Cara.'

Sophia didn't mind it anyway. Cara's know-it-all chatter was just what she needed to distract her. 'It's okay, Leah,' she told her.

Leah misinterpreted. 'No, it's not!' she declared loudly. 'Cara's right, the chances were so small, yet you're the one they pick.'

'But I'll be fine.' If she said that often enough, it might just become true. 'I can climb and stay out of everyone's way and I'll be fine.'

Her friends were obviously not convinced, but they nodded and Cara held out a small wooden carving. 'Here, for you,' she said. 'As a token. It's small, so you can easily keep it with you. And they won't forbid it, I think, so…'

Sophia didn't let her finish, instead opting on taking the wooden bird and giving both her friends a hug again. 'I'll be fine,' she told them again. _If only I could believe it myself_.

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**That's it for now. Let me know what you thought and until next reaping!**


	5. Chapter 5 - District 6 Reaping

**Hello dear readers. I'm ever so sorry for the long wait, but here's the new chapter for you. All the spots are finally filled, so a huge thank you to all those who submitted. I love you, guys. I've really gotten an interesting group. The final list is on my profile, if you want to see it.**

**Anyway, my brother decided it was District 6's turn, so here you have it. And please do keep the reviews coming. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

**Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 5**

**District 6 reaping**

**Jack Mindy, 18**

The air was cool, almost chilly even, when Jack closed the door of his home behind him, doing so as softly as he could in order not to wake up his younger brother. Sam was still sleeping after having his nose stuck in a book for what Jack could safely assume would be most of the night. Leave it to his baby brother to completely forget about the time, at least when there was a book involved.

The district was still mostly silent, most people still sleeping. The sun wasn't even really up yet. But Jack had no intention of wasting a perfectly good morning in bed. There were hovercrafts that needed fixing and the earlier he could get to it, the more time he would have before his boss would show up. Anything to have those moments alone.

Come to think of it, Clam wasn't probably that bad. Even Jack had to admit that he was in essence a good man and a fair boss. He was good at his job and had organisation skills some people would probably kill for. The only real problem Jack had with him was his mouth: too big and far too active. It didn't really help his case that he used it to snap or bark orders at his subordinates either.

There were a few other people in the hangars already, but not a lot. Jack greeted them and they greeted in return, but by now it had become an unspoken rule that they didn't invade the other's private space. They all knew the risks of doing so. The act itself wasn't all that dangerous, it was the conversation making that was the real problem. Sooner rather than later someone would blurt out something wrong and it almost always ended up in a fight, usually one involving Jack's wrench. After all, who needs a real weapon when a tool will do the job as well, sometimes even better?

The first real smile of the day crossed his face as he entered the hangar properly. 'Hello, you beauty.'

And she was. The hovercraft was his personal pride and glory. It had come down badly damaged several months earlier, so badly in fact that people were already discussing demolishing it completely and use the parts that were still whole on other hovercrafts. But Jack had looked at the hovercraft and instead of a wreck, he had seen it for what it truly was: a wondrous piece of technology, full of possibilities.

That was when his own personal quest had started. It had taken a lot of persuasion, which had required being nice to people he couldn't stand, even admitting that Clam was right on quite a few occasions (oh, the horror of it!), but in the end he had gotten the green light. And now here she was, all fixed, all ready to go.

Jack felt strangely saddened at the thought that the Capitol would claim her again tomorrow, but today was not the day for such thoughts. Today she still belonged to him and he could do with her whatever he wanted. And that was exactly what he was planning to do.

Some part of him knew he should have told somebody that he was going to make a test flight, but he couldn't bring himself to care that he hadn't. All that mattered, Jack pondered as he took off, was that he was in the air again, flying the hovercraft everyone had given up on. He had proven them all wrong. The feeling of triumph washed over him and he basked in it.

He looked out over the world, taking in the beauty of the sky's many colours as the sun slowly started to rise. Up here he was free, free to do whatever he chose, feeling safe now that he left all the other people behind him on the ground.

Unfortunately not even his hovercraft could change the fact that it was reaping day and that he had to be there in a matter of hours. That thought effectively ruined the rest of his flight.

**Iris Axel, 17**

The sun mercilessly found a way into her hideout in the end. It was inevitable, even though se ad dragged the makeshift mattress to the darkest corner she could find. Iris groaned, trying to block out the light by hiding under the blanket, but of course it was no use. She was awake now and no amount of darkness would make her go back to sleep, back to that wonderful land of dreams, the land where everyone lived, as opposed to the real world, where everyone died.

But she was living in the real world, so instead of moaning about things that would never be again, she had better get up and do something useful, like getting herself some breakfast. There was still a little left from yesterday's food raid, but it wouldn't be enough. Maybe, if she was really quick, she might be able to steal something off the Peacekeepers. It wouldn't be the first time she'd done it and it wouldn't be the last time either. And God knew those capitol-cuddling bastards had more food than they could eat in years. They wouldn't miss what she took from them.

She was still making plans when she was startled by a short tap on the high window, the only window, in her hideout. Her heart stopped for a moment, afraid she might have been discovered by the wrong kind of people, but she calmed down as soon as she saw her friends' faces.

She climbed up the windowsill and opened the window so that they could come in. 'Don't you ever do that to me again!' she hissed at the closest boy, Ronon in this case.

Said boy coloured bright scarlet in embarrassment. 'Sorry, Iris,' he muttered.

Aran was less impressed. He lowered himself into the hiding place, an abandoned cellar in an equally abandoned old factory. Why the place had not been demolished yet was a mystery to all, but Iris was grateful for small mercies. St least that meant she had a roof over her head and a place that protected her from the worst cold in winter.

'You say that every time,' Aran pointed out. 'And you haven't bitten our heads off so far.'

Iris snorted, but ruffled his hair playfully nonetheless. 'Maybe I should just ask you to move in and be done with it all.'

For some reason this made Ronon's cheeks flush even brighter, if that was even possible. Iris frowned. She hadn't been offering such a strange thing, had she? After all, it would only be reasonable. They could bundle their strengths, help each other survive. _And the company would be an added bonus_, a small voice in the back of her head supplied. And it was right. It had been rather quiet ever since her last friend Opal had died. No, not died. She had been torn to pieces by hungry dogs. That had belonged to the Peacekeepers. The very thought of it made Iris's blood boil again.

Aran hadn't noticed a thing, not his brother's blushing nor Iris's reminiscing. 'Awesome,' he commented. 'Can we move in today? Can we, Ronon?'

For one reason or another Ronon was still lost for words, so Iris took it upon herself to answer the question. 'That's okay,' she heard herself say. All of a sudden the thought of being alone any longer appalled her and there was really no earthly reason why this wouldn't work out just fine. To be quite honest, she couldn't for the life of her figure why this idea had never crossed her mind before.

Aran's huge grin almost split his face in half. 'Cool.' Despite being fourteen years old he still behaved like a kid; enthusiastic, open-minded and… _happy_, she supposed was the right word, in spite of the hopeless homeless situation he was in. Maybe it was his armour, his way of dealing with all the crap that life had thrown at him. Ronon was the more serious of the two brothers. He was only a little over a year older than Aran, but he clearly was the adult, the natural result of being the eldest sibling.

'I practised knife fighting, like you told me, Iris,' Aran announced.

She frowned. 'You didn't get yourself in a fight, did you?'

He offered her his widest, boyish smile. 'Nah, I'll leave that to you. You're better at it.'

_That's certainly true_, Iris thought wryly. _But then, I have been doing it for years. He hasn't_.

'Did you have breakfast yet?' Ronon wondered.

'Nope, still have to go hunting,' she replied. 'You?'

'Yep, and I've brought you some.' He tossed her a bread and she caught it. 'Peacekeepers' compliments.' The smile he gave her was definitely triumphant.

'That was my idea,' she pouted, but eating the bread regardless. 'Now I'll have to find another hunting ground.'

'No time for that,' Ronon told her. 'Don't you have any idea of the time? You slept all morning, Axel.' Some weeks ago he had suddenly decided it would sound "cool" if he addressed her by her surname. 'Aran and I only stopped by to see if you were already awake.'

Shit, reapings! To be honest, she hadn't given them a moment's thought ever since she had woken. And she hadn't wanted to either. It would only bring back memories of her brother, her twin brother, Joll's reaping and that was a memory she could do without. Too much loss, too many memories. And she could not afford to drown in them. As it was only her hatred towards the Capitol and the companionship of her friends kept her from losing herself to them.

_So that's what you'll focus on, Axel_, she firmly told herself as they walked towards the Justice building together. _Keep yourself together!_

Aran had become slightly nervous and Ronon wasn't much better, so she would be strong for all of them, since she had done since the first time they had met.

'You'll be fine,' she promised Aran, her brother for all intents and purposes, wishing it would be within her power to make good on that promise. 'I'll see you after reaping and then we'll move your stuff to my place, right?'

That seemed to brighten his mood. 'Sure,' he agreed.

'You'll be fine too,' Ronon whispered in her ear, although Iris had no idea how he could sound so sure of that.

Iris just smiled by way of a reply and then sought her way to the seventeen year old section, while the Treaty of Treason was already being read by the Mayor's ever so monotonous voice. By now Iris started to wonder if he actually could talk any other way. Monotonous seemed to be his default setting.

The escort, an annoying woman with bright green hair and equally green eyes, took his place when he was done, chattering on about how happy she was to see them all again and how happy she was to be here. But her smile was as fake as her hair colour and Iris didn't believe a word she said. This was just another Capitol fool, like all the others.

'Well, ladies first, shall we?' she asked in the end.

_Would it work if I said no?_

Miss Green (or that was what Iris called her at least) marched over to the girls' bowl and pulled out a name. 'Iris Axel!' she announced.

And the world stopped turning.

**Jack Mindy, 18**

Sam had worked himself up into quite a state by the time Jack had come home. He had always been nervous about reapings and today was no exception. It had taken Jack a lot of time, a game of football and the promise of a new book to calm him down. But he had managed it, and that was what counted, even though all Sam's fear seemed to have found a new place to reside in Jack, who by now felt positively nauseous with nerves about Sam. So, of course they didn't take tesserae and Sam's name was only a few times in that bowl, but it wouldn't be the first time either that such a kid was reaped.

_Stop it!_ he told himself. _You've made it so far, you'll make it out again. Both of you._

His attention returned to the stage as the girl was reaped. Her name didn't ring any bells with him, but he knew who she was when he saw her. She was the street fighter, the one with the strange eyes, one blue and one hazel green. Very dangerous with knives, that one, if he remembered correctly. She was the kind of girl who actually stood a chance in the arena. She already looked like she would eat the escort for lunch if she didn't wipe that stupid smile off her face.

'And now, let us choose our heroic boy tribute!' the escort (Jack thought her name was Sandy Emerald) declared. 'Sam Mindy!'

And somehow the world stopped turning in that very moment. 'No.' He hadn't even realised he had spoken out loud until heads started to turn in his direction. 'No.' Not Sam. Not his gentle brother, who would rather cure a fly than kill one. Not that happy boy with his love of books. He wouldn't stand a chance, especially not against a girl like Iris Axel.

'I volunteer!' he shouted. The words had left his mouth before he had really made the decision. But he didn't regret his words. He knew he could do it and then Sam would be safe. He would find a way to stay alive, to survive until Jack came back.

He was vaguely aware of Peacekeepers escorting him up the stage, but he sought out Sam's face in the crowd. His brother appeared to be in a state of a full-blown panic attack. His eyes were wide and tear-filled, disbelief obvious in his every feature. Jack gave him a hardly visible nod, telling him that he knew what he was doing.

And then he was on the stage, faced with an overly happy escort and a district partner that looked at him like he was the scum of the earth.

'And what is your name, handsome one?' Miss Emerald inquired. Her high voice was as annoying as it was excited.

'Jack Mindy, eighteen years old,' he replied curtly.

The escort's smile widened. 'Oh, then you volunteered for your brother!' Was it possible for that woman to become any more enthusiastic, Jack wondered, or any more irritating?

He simply nodded, catching the now understanding look Iris Axel sent his way. The judgement that had been there seemed to have vanished completely. When Sandy Emerald urged them to shake hands they did so willingly, nodding at each other in respect. Maybe this girl would make for a good ally. Jack was usually a loner, but he knew enough about the Games to know that one didn't stand much chance without any allies. And this girl looked like a fighter, a survivor. Teaming up with her might be a wise move.

He was still pondering that as the door was thrown open wide and Sam stormed in. Jack caught him in a bearlike hug.

'You'll win,' Sam sobbed, but it sounded more like a question than a solid belief. 'If I could I'd sponsor you.'

Jack smiled. 'I know, kiddo. But I'll be fine anyway. You know that, right?' He held his brother at arm's length and looked him right in the eyes. 'I'll come back.'

Sam nodded, still not wholly convinced, but better in control of himself now. 'I know.'

He had no idea how the time had passed so quickly, but the door was already opened by a Peacekeeper who told them that time was up and that Sam had to leave immediately.

'Give us a few minutes, man!' Jack snapped at him.

He got a glare in return, but at least the head disappeared from sight again. But he wouldn't be long, so Jack took the chance while he still had it, forcing Sam to look at him, thus making sure he would really listen to what he was saying.

'Listen up, kiddo. Mom and dad are dead, but I am not and I will make sure I'll win these stupid Games and come home to you, right?' Sam's tears made him want to cry himself, but he kept a firm grip on himself. The last thing Sam needed to see was his brother crying, not when he believed Jack was the strongest and most reliable person he knew.

The door was thrown open again and now it were two Peacekeepers coming in, grabbing Sam's arms and dragging him away.

'Hey!' Jack shouted in protest.

He was hit in the stomach before he could say anything else, sinking to the ground with a feeling he might throw up any moment. But he had done the right thing, he knew as he looked at the door that was now closed again. He had done the right thing and in a few weeks he would be back here. And that was a promise.

**Iris Axel, 17**

Iris was torn between wanting to cry and wanting to smash something or, better still, someone to pieces. This could not be happening, not to her. Not after what happened to Joll. She tried to stop the stream of memories, but once she had thought her brother's name, there was no stopping it anymore. She could all too easily picture him again, only twelve years old, looking so scared up on that stage, clenching his hands into fists, seeking out her gaze, their father's. He had broken down in this very room, crying, admitting his fear. They had held him for as long as they could, until the Peacekeepers had cruelly torn them away. Iris had had bruises from their firm grip for weeks, but she hadn't been able to care, not when her twin brother would have to fight for his life within so short a time period.

The images kept coming now: Joll at the Chariot rides, looking scared and slightly in awe, Joll's training score, only a mere five, but reason enough to hope, Joll at his interview, trying to come across as stronger than Iris knew him to be. And finally, Joll up on that pedestal, visibly trembling. Iris remembered her own hands clenching into fists as well, hoping, praying to any God that might listen to keep him safe. When the Careers had brutally slaughtered him only a minute later, it had felt like a part of her had died as well.

And now she was here, doomed to the same fate. No, not the same fate. Her fighting spirit returned with a vengeance, snapping her out of her depressing mood. She was older, wiser, far more experienced. She was not helpless. She was anything but helpless! She could fight, she could survive. She had done so for years, mostly on her own. The Careers would not get to her that easily.

_They can't get to me if they're dead_. Iris had no idea where that thought had come from, but now it was there, there was no escaping it. Killing off the Careers, instead of waiting until they came for her. Find some allies, take the war to them before they could take it to her.

Before she could give it any more thought, Aran and Ronon came in. Ronon was as pale as a sheet and Aran was in tears. The whole happy-go-lucky attitude had abandoned him as he threw his arms around her waist, sobbing uncontrollably.

Iris let him for a while and then held him at arm's length. 'Don't cry,' she told him. 'No, Aran, don't. Do not give them the satisfaction.'

She waited until the boy finally nodded.

'Good.' She gave him half a smile. 'Now you go and move your stuff into my hide-out. I'll be back before you know it.'

'You will?'

Iris nodded, trying to come across as strong as she could manage. 'Yes, I will. You just go and make it comfortable in there, will you?'

Now he had gotten a purpose, he seemed a little more relaxed. 'Sure,' he agreed.

'Can you wait outside for a moment, Aran?' Ronon suddenly asked. 'I'll need to tell Iris something.' And, as Aran give his brother a quizzical look, he added: 'In private.'

Now Iris was confused as well. What was Ronon talking about? She watched Aran leave and then turned to her other friend to ask what this was all about. 'Ronon, what…?' she asked.

'I love you.' The words came out so fast she could hardly make sense of it all. They only slowly seeped through to her brain and then she was even more confused.

'I'm sorry, what…?'

Again he didn't give her the chance to finish. In two big steps he stood right in front of her, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. On the mouth. And that was decidedly not a kiss friends gave one another. This was a lover's kiss.

He's in love with me, Iris suddenly realised. And, as she realised this, it also became clear to her that he had been for quite some time now. And she had completely overlooked it. She had been so stupid.

She wasn't really sure yet how she felt about this herself, but it did feel good somehow, very good if she was really honest. So what if he was two years her junior? He clearly wanted this and she wasn't really opposed to this turn of events either.

And so she let him, hesitatingly kissing him back and therefore missing the arrival of the Peacekeepers. She only noticed their presence when Ronon's mouth was almost literally torn away from hers, making her trip and all but fall.

'I love you!' Ronon shouted at her. It might have been very dramatic if he hadn't been tripping over his own feet as well.

The door slammed shut behind him. 'I'll be back!' Iris shouted after him, not even sure if he could still hear her. _I'll take down the Careers and I'll come back. And that's a promise._

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**That's it for today. So, what did you think?**


	6. Chapter 6 - District 12 Reaping

**Hello, dear readers. My brother chose the number twelve for this chapter's reaping, so without further ado I present you: district 12! Enjoy and please review!**

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**Chapter 6**

**District 12 reapings**

**Katharos Porter, 12**

It was still quiet in the district when Katharos slipped out of the house, pencils and paper stuffed away in the small back that now bounced on her back as she sprinted to her favourite tree to spend the morning there. She was pretty sure her aunt was still asleep, which suited her just as well. They didn't really talk anyway, although Kath, as her aunt tended to call her because it was easier, would have to confess that that was more her fault than her aunt's. She just didn't know what to do with herself around people. Somehow they frightened her.

And that was the reason she had escaped the house so early this morning. It was reaping day and that meant that there would be no school today. She didn't really mind that at all. After all, it was a day without bullies commenting on her every fault, stalking her every step. But this didn't mean she liked to be in the house now either. Her aunt was a caretaker for young kids. She watched them for their parents while they went into work. Kath didn't really mind that and at least it meant they had a source of income. But you had to admit that screaming and crying kids were pretty noisy and that she could definitely do without. The noise made Kath want to run for cover, for a peaceful, quiet place and that was exactly what she had done today.

Kath remembered that she had never been the most talkative kid around, preferring to listen instead of talking, but somehow the death of almost her entire family had made her shy away from conversation altogether. In her limited experience people would only look at her with either pity or a complete lack of understanding of the situation. At least trees didn't judge and they made for a perfect hiding place.

And hiding was what she did best. Because she was so taciturn and small she was easily overlooked, even by those closest to her. People forgot she was even there and said things they would never have said if they had remembered Kath's presence. But then, it didn't really matter anyway, since Kath didn't have anyone to tell the secrets to.

But what she lacked in conversational skills, she more than made up for in drawing skills. And that was what she would spend the morning on, she had decided. This may be reaping day and this may be her first time to run the risk to get chosen for the Hunger Games, but she still had a few hours to go.

**Clayton Pierce, 18**

It was still early when he woke, the sunlight streaming in through the window. Clayton uttered some inaudible curse and then hid his head under the pillow in order to sleep a little while longer. This was the only day of the year that he could sleep in, so he'd be damned if he didn't use it. Anyway, he reckoned he deserved it. He had worked all year and took the extra risk of taking tesserae. Yep, those things were definitely more than enough excuse to stay in bed a little longer.

He could hear the door slam downstairs and knew his father had gone off to the mine to work for at least a few hours before the reaping. Clayton knew he should be glad that he didn't need to go into work because of that very same reaping, but at the same time he dreaded it. His name was in that bowl more times than anyone should be comfortable with. The odds were most definitely not in his favour.

But they had never been in his favour, not since he was twelve, when he started taking tesserae to keep the family alive. And he had never been picked before. And he wasn't the only guy in the district to take tesserae. He had never been chosen before and he doubted that would change today. _So, knock it off_, he told himself, turning to his other side, closing his eyes. It was much too early to worry about these things.

He was just dozing off again, finding himself in that pleasant state of being absolutely relaxed, on the verge of sleep but not quite over it yet, when the door burst open and he was dragged away from the land of dreams by two cannon balls colliding with his body. That was what it felt like at least.

'Ow!' he exclaimed, trying to push them away from him.

'Wake up, wake up!' two voices urged him. 'Come on, Clay, get up!'

On second thought, those things hadn't been cannon balls. It were "only" his very awake little sisters. 'Go away,' he muttered, hiding his head beneath the pillow again.

The girls' laughter found its way to his ears regardless. 'Come on, Clay, get out! You promised to play with us today!'

A vague memory of such a promise drifted to the forefront of his mind. 'Not this early,' he complained.

Someone, Clayton thought it would be a safe guess to say that it was Ida, jumped on his back, causing him to let out some form of muffled protest. 'Get off,' he ordered, the effect slightly less terrifying than he had meant because of the pillow he was still hiding under.

'You promised, Clay,' the girls insisted.

'Please, Clay?' Arlene added in that soft begging tone he had never been able to refuse. And she knew it.

Well, all chance of sleep had gone now anyway. His sisters had effectively taken care of that. A small smile that the twins could not yet see formed on his face, a plan growing in his mind.

He went still, not moving at all. Ida was still jumping on his back, treating him like he was some kind of glorified horse and Arlene was busy trying to lift the pillow, which he held over his head, without a lot of success. The work in the mines had made him quite strong and the girls were rather weak in that respect. This was no contest at all. He snorted. He had always known that working in the mines had to be good for something.

'Come on!' Ida begged.

As if she didn't know already that she was winning this. There was just no way they were going to leave him alone until he had made good on his promise. Most people seemed to think Ida and Arlene were the quietest and most obedient girls they had ever come across. But none of those people had ever seen the twins at home. Quiet and obedient? Clayton still hadn't seen that side of them inside this house.

'Have mercy,' he muttered to his mattress.

'Never!' the girls chorused. Ida stepped up the pace of jumping on his back and Arlene doubled her efforts to get the pillow of his head. They were really having the time of their lives teasing their older brother.

He knew that had been coming, so when they were too preoccupied telling him how they would never give up annoying him, he turned, removed the pillow from his head and caught his sisters in his arms before they knew what was happening.

'No mercy for me, eh?' he grinned. 'Well, then I won't have any mercy for you either!'

They tried to escape, but it was no use. He tickled them until they were all out of breath and somehow the whole thing ended up in a pillow fight. They laughed and had fun and as they finally were done, catching their breath, Clayton thought that reaping days weren't that bad, not when they started like this.

**Katharos Porter, 12**

Kath hated the crowd that was always there when the reaping came around. She used to avoid the whole event, but since she was now twelve that was no longer an option. She would have to attend, whether she liked it or not. And she did most certainly not like this at all. It was too noisy and too crowded. There were lots of other kids who seemed to have made it their life's ambition to bully Kath for being small or for being deprived of a family or for never talking. Her aunt had explained to her that kids tended to do that. It was their way to make fun of things they didn't understand, because they had no other way to deal with it.

But no matter what the point of the bullying was, Kath feared it. The assaults were more verbal than physical, but they hurt all the same. Whoever had thought of that stupid idea that words could never hurt you had obviously never been on the receiving end of those insults.

'You'll be fine, Kath,' her aunt reassured her. The words were accompanied by a gentle squeeze of the shoulder. 'Your name is only once in that bowl. You will not be reaped.' The certainty in her voice helped Kath to calm down a bit, even though getting reaped was the very least of her concerns. The main problem was going in that crowd, facing all those other kids.

But she didn't know how to say that, so she simply nodded. She would be fine. Those kids had never killed her before. They wouldn't do so now. That wouldn't mean, however, that it was going to be easy.

Signing in was only the start of the nightmare. The woman handling her sign-up was a snappy, cold woman with an icy, uninterested voice. She almost sounded like she had recorded herself, pressing the play button every time another child came to her desk. There was nothing personal about her and Kath found herself close to panic by the time it was done.

Things certainly didn't improve as she sought her way to the twelve year old female section, closest to the stage. She had always been small and skinny, but she had never been so aware of that before. Not like now, when taller kids all pushed her out of the way without even looking at her. Not that the other kids were not skinny – living in this district meant no one got the chance to really get fat – but most of them were older and taller. And even those that weren't whispered about her.

'They just don't understand why you won't talk, Kath,' her aunt had once explained to her in a weary voice.

Kath knew aunt Adrienne didn't understand it either. Kath didn't even understand it herself. Not talking somehow made her feel safer. If she was quiet, people would forget about her. She would become practically invisible to them and then she would be left alone, just the way she liked it.

Fortunately the ordeal of whispering behind Kath's back was short-lived. Kath had been late, so now it was already time for the escort to take the stage, effectively distracting her attention away from the bullies. The young girl didn't think she had ever seen such a colourful woman before. She had brilliant golden hair, not just a shade of blond, but actual gold hair that sparkled in the sunlight. The woman's eyes – Kath thought she had heard the woman been called Lucia Bell – were an unnatural shade of blue, while her skin was whiter than skin was supposed to be. It was topped off by a long brilliant crimson dress that fell onto the floor.

This was the kind of woman that would not often be seen here, so Kath committed the picture to memory, so she could draw her later. It would be a lot of work to get all the shades just right, especially the hair colour, but it would be well worth the trouble. Kath thought her pretty, or at least extraordinary.

She had seen citizens from the Capitol before, on television, and they were always a sight to behold. But this was the first time she had seen one from there for herself. It exceeded her expectations. The Capitol must be a place of wonders with all those bright colours and unique people. Even as her crowd-hating side shied away from the very thought of such a noisy and crowded city full of people, her art-loving side longed to see it all for herself so that she could make drawings of them.

She had been so preoccupied by taking in every detail of Miss Bell's appearance that she had completely missed the reading of the Treaty of Treason. Her attention only returned to the stage as Lucia Bell walked over to the girls' bowl and almost tripped over the hem of her long skirt as she did so.

'Oops,' she giggled.

Several children in the crowd giggled as well, but the laughter wasn't good-humoured like the escort's. Kath had enough experience with this kind of laughing to know it for what it was. It was the kind that told the person who was laughed at that the laughers were thinking their failure extremely funny. It was malicious and Kath inwardly shuddered.

'Let us choose our brave female tribute for this year's annual Hunger Games.' Lucia didn't seem to care about the laughter as she reached into the bowl, the perfectly groomed fingers roaming around for a while before picking out one slip. Since she was standing right in front Kath could see it all very well.

'Are you as curious as I am?' Lucia asked the audience with a smile. She walked back to the microphone, this time taking care to lift the skirt a little in order not to trip a second time. 'And the chosen one is…' She waited a moment for maximum effect. 'Katharos Porter!'

**Clayton Pierce, 18**

The light atmosphere had mostly worn off by the time they left the house to go to the reaping. The girls had become quiet and subdued the moment they had stepped foot outside the door. Clayton knew them to be almost scared out of their wits because of the reaping, even when they didn't take any tesserae at all. Their father had wanted them to, but Clayton had put his foot down and after a massive argument he had gotten his way. At least for now. Next year might be a different piece of cake. He would no longer be taking part in the reapings then, so how would they feed the family then.

But this was not the right time to worry about that. First things first. So he took the girls' hands and walked with them to the Justice building. Arlene had gotten his right hand in some kind of death grip, turning both their knuckles white, and Ida had taken his entire arm, clinging to him as if her very life depended on it.

'You'll be fine,' Clayton told them. 'It'll be over before you know it and then we can go home and you can help me cook the most delicious meal you have ever eaten.'

This seemed to help them and they started to tell him what they would love to eat more. Clayton listened to them guessing away, a smile gracing his features. He had known that they were afraid of the reapings, so in order to reward them for their "bravery" he had saved some money and bought the ingredients for a meal that by their standards was luxury.

'That's the spirit,' he told them when it was time to sign in. 'Now, I'll meet you here as soon as reaping is done. No wandering around afterwards, do you hear me? I want you to come straight here, so I don't have to search for you.' He winked. 'After all, we do want to get started on that fabulous meal right away, don't we?'

That prospect brightened their moods. It lit up their entire faces. 'Sure,' they agreed. 'See you here then?' Because of the nerves it came out as a question.

'See you here,' Clayton agreed.

He himself had never been this scared of reapings, but that might have something to do with the fact that he tried not to think about it. District Twelve wasn't prone to having Victors, but after last year the spirits had been lifting. There was hope hanging around in the air now, hope that maybe this district wasn't doomed to lose every time. It was strangely reassuring.

That hope was crushed for him the moment he saw the female tribute walking up the stage. Katharos Porter was small, skinny and all in all looking like a trembling piece of human being. She could hardly be twelve years old and she was scared out of her wits, that much was obvious. Poor girl, she didn't stand a chance in the arena, not at all, and by the looks of it she was very much aware of that.

_This is sick_. The girl was younger than his own sisters even. Clayton knew enough of the Hunger Games to know that she probably wouldn't live past the bloodbath. But then, if she was smart and quick, she would just make a run for it and then she might last a while. It had been known to happen before. But Katharos winning the Games? That was about as likely as the Capitol taking an actual liking to the districts they ruled over.

His attention returned to the stage as the escort – he could hardly bear to look at her; the bright colours made his eyes hurt – walked over to the boys' ball. 'And now, dear Katharos, let us choose your brave district partner!' Lucia Bell announced. 'Oh, look, I've found a slip.'

Her enthusiasm was as sickening as her outfit. Clayton wondered whether she really felt so happy about this as she behaved. He found it difficult to believe that anyone would take pleasure in doing this kind of thing. After all, she was basically escorting children to their deaths, year after year after year. Was she even aware of that or was her head just as empty as the Pierce's pantry?

'Clayton Pierce!' Lucia proclaimed, looking far too happy for someone who had just sentenced another human being to death.

And then it hit him. The name that had been called was his own. He was being reaped. To compete in the Hunger Games.

The crowd parted to let him through, shooting him looks of pity. Some of them actually looked at him as if he was already on his deathbed.

He had no idea how he had ended up on the stage, but suddenly he found himself being smiled at by the escort, revealing her far too white teeth. For some reason this annoyed him.

_You're being ridiculous_, a voice in the back of his head told him. _You're being reaped into the Hunger Games and you wonder about the escort's teeth?_

It was ridiculous. Clayton had to agree to that, so instead of doing more stupid things, he searched for his sisters' faces in the thirteen year old female section. And when he found them he immediately wished he hadn't searched for them. They gazed at him, eyes wide with shock, silent tears rolling down their cheeks. Their looks of unadulterated horror broke his heart. And apparently his heart wasn't the only thing that broke in that second. The same seemed to be happening to his self-control. A few treacherous tears escaped and he brushed them away furiously. He would not be seen crying on television. He would not.

It was almost a relief to be guided into the Justice building and into a room, where he was left alone. Those blasted tears kept coming and for a moment he surrendered to them. He knew there was every chance of him dying and, selfishly, he allowed himself to feel sorry for himself. It wasn't fair, but then, in his limited experience life was seldom fair. If it had been his family would not have lived in poverty, his mother would have been alive and there would never have been any Hunger Games at all.

Things didn't get better when his visitors came in. Much like that morning Ida and Arlene launched themselves into his arms, but, unlike that morning, they were crying instead of laughing. They were clinging to him for dear life and their tears did nothing at all to contain his own fear. People always said that he carried his heart on his sleeve and normally he hated that. But today the world had already turned upside-down. It didn't really matter now that he showed how he felt. At least there were no cameras to bear witness to his tears.

His gaze settled on his father, who had come in after the twins. He looked very subdued and even awkward here. Clayton and his dad had never been close, but since Henderson Pierce was never at home anyway that had never become really clear. Here, cramped into this room, it was painfully obvious that neither of them actually knew how to behave towards the other. They could have been strangers to each other.

'You take care of them,' Clayton told him over the twins' heads. _Now that I can no longer be there for them_. The words were unspoken, but they all heard them. 'Be there for them.' The girls were capable of a lot of things, but taking care of themselves was not a skill they possessed.

'You can't go,' Arlene cried. 'You've got to stay.'

'I can't.' It almost broke his heart all over again to say those words, but they were true. There was no choice in this. The Capitol had claimed him for their own and they would not let him go just because his sisters begged for it.

'Then you've got to win,' Ida insisted. Her hold on him was so tight that he could hardly breathe. 'Promise, Clay.'

'I promise.' There were after all no other things he could possibly say to that.

It was only after the time was up and his sisters had been dragged away by Peacekeepers that he realised that this promise also entailed that he would have to make sure that that vulnerable little girl died in order to ensure his homecoming. The thought made him literally sick.

**Katharos Porter, 12**

The trembling had all but stopped by the time Kath was ushered into a room. It had given way to pure shock. She couldn't think clearly and the unshed tears were blurring her vision. Somehow it had never even occurred to her that she might get reaped into the Hunger Games. Aunt Adrienne had told her time and again that there was very little chance for that to happen and naturally Kath had believed her. After all, there were so many other things that she could and should be worrying about.

But now here she was, about to be shipped off to the Capitol. And she knew she didn't stand a chance, none at all. She was too small, too weak, too young to survive this. She had never heard of a twelve year old Victor. They just didn't exist. To be quite honest, she had never heard of any tribute below the age of fifteen winning those Games. The thought made her tremble all over again.

The door opened and let in her aunt. There were no words needed, but then, there never were. Adrienne just held her in a tight embrace, stroking her hair, murmuring reassuring words that Kath didn't really hear. She was sure they were meant well, but she doubted their usefulness. They both knew this was the last time they met.

In the end Adrienne let go of her. 'Hold out your hand,' she ordered.

Kath obeyed, looking at her expectantly.

Adrienne dropped an old locket in it. Kath recognised it. Her aunt had had that for as long as she could remember.

'Go on, open it,' her aunt urged.

Kath obeyed and found herself looking at a picture of her family, all of them. Her father, her mother, her brother and a baby Kath, sitting on her father's arm, smiling brightly at the camera. It was beautiful and the tears that had been threatening to escape ever since she had first heard her name called out by the escort finally rolled down her face.

'I thought you should have it now,' Adrienne told her, once again stroking her hair in a comforting gesture. But they both heard the words that were unspoken. _I thought you should have it now, to help you through your last week on earth._

* * *

**That's it for now. I have no idea which district will be next, so I guess we'll all just have to watch and wait. In the meantime, could you spare a moment of your time to leave a review? I really like to know what you're thinking!**


	7. Chapter 7 - District 11 Reaping

**Hello dear readers. Sorry for the long wait again. Life has been absolutely crazy here for the past few weeks. But, I'm back again and now half of the reapings are done! I'm feeling slightly pleased with myself.**

**Originally it was going to be District 9 this time, but I had quite a few problems with the male from that district, so if you're still reading this Steven-B, might I be allowed to change a few things about him? I can't really write him the way he is now.**

**Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Here's District 11. I hope I did the tributes justice. Enjoy and let me know what you think, please. It means a lot!**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**District 11 reapings**

**Iliana Destrumenta, 16**

It seemed more than a little unfair to Lia that the sun should shine on such a wretched day. She pondered that as she walked over to the window to watch out over the street, bathing in the morning sun's early light. Most of the district's inhabitants were still asleep, but Lia had been up for hours. She didn't really mind, not really. Over the years she had become used to it.

She sighed, hating the need to do this. She didn't hate her mother for making Lia care for her so often and she didn't hate her siblings for not being able to provide the care she needed. If anything was to blame it was the illness, the doctors, the Capitol, her father. The list just kept expanding, not that it was of any use.

She turned around to watch her mother's finally sleeping form. What she saw frightened her. Mrs Destrumenta was lying on the bed in the corner of the living room, almost hidden from sight by all the blankets that had been put on the bed. Yet she was still shivering with cold, even when the room itself was warm. Her skin had a greyish tint to it, making her look like she was already dead.

Lia's fists clenched in frustration and she had to do everything in her power to bite back the tears that came with it. This was so unfair. It needn't even be like this. There were medicines available. This illness could be cured, rather easily too if she had heard the doctor right. The only problem was the money. And whenever wasn't it about the money? For as long as Lia could remember there had been too little of it and things hadn't exactly improved when her dad had left two years ago. The selfish bastard, she thought. He had run off at the first sign of the illness, too absorbed by his own comfort, that would be endangered with his wife's illness. At first Lia had been begging him to come back, but these days she was rather glad to be rid of him.

'Lia?' a small voice asked and when she turned around she could see her youngest brother Miguel stand in the door. He was still in his night's clothing, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The worn teddy bear that had once belonged to Lia was firmly tucked beneath his arm, the very image of the adorable baby brother.

'You're up early.' Lia conjured up a smile as she walked over to him, thus shielding their mother's body from view. She had taken a turn for the worst last night and Miguel didn't need to see that.

'Couldn't sleep,' the boy confessed. 'Can I sit with you, please?' Wide pleading eyes looked up at her.

No, you can't. That wasn't what she said, however. 'Why don't you wake the others and tell Niya to make breakfast?' she proposed. 'You might even be allowed to help her do it.'

At that prospect the disappointment vanished from his face, allowing a wide boyish smile to come through. 'Will you help as well?' he asked hopefully.

Lia shook her head. 'I'm going to see the doctor,' she replied. She didn't think it would be of any use, but at least then she would have known that she tried. _I _have_ to try_. A small, very irrational, part of her hoped that the doctor would take pity on them and help them because of it. The more rational part of her brain told her that things were not going to be that easy, but for her mother's sake she would once again try. She would beg on her knees if she had to. She would cry and make a scene if that was what it took. She just could not sit here and watch her mother waste away before her very eyes.

Miguel's smile vanished as quickly as it had come. He tried to watch around Lia to see their mother, but she was onto him, guiding him out of the door as gently but quickly as she could. Her youngest brother was a sensitive child and their mother's condition affected him more than enough already. 'Go,' she urged him.

No doubt Miguel would now be telling Niya everything that had happened here, causing her sister to come down here as soon as possible, leaving Miguel to wake the others. And she was not disappointed. It didn't take Niya five minutes to come down. She was still in her nightgown, her eyes still bleary with sleep and her hair a mess. Lia wasn't fooled though. Niya was one of the cleverest people around.

'How bad is it?' she asked. The oldest sibling also wasn't one for beating around the bush.

'Worse than it was before,' Lia replied in a hushed whisper, very much aware that there could be children listening from behind the door. 'I need you to watch her for a while.'

One eyebrow was raised in a quizzical manner. 'And what are you going to do?'

Ten to one that Miguel had already told her, but that she wanted to hear it out of Lia's own mouth. 'I'm going to see the doctor.' With every second she became more determined. There had to be something, _anything_ she could do, right?

Niya sighed. 'You know that will not work, Lia.'

She glared at her sister, at her acceptance of the situation. 'Do you now suggest I resign myself to the fact that our mother will die?' she demanded, louder than was wise perhaps.

And Niya shook her head. 'No, of course not. But please, do not get your hopes up, Li.'

_I won't. But I've got to try, no matter what._

**Blaze Shadow, 17**

It was still fairly early, but the house was already as active as a bee colony in high summer. Downstairs he could hear his sister Yessiree complain about something as of yet unspecified. Most likely it was something completely unimportant, like a strand of hair out of place or something equally useless. His mother's snappy remark could be heard over the rattling of cups and cutlery. No doubt she was in a hurry to get to her job in time. His father's deep baritone voice provided a welcome calm in the women's high-pitched argument, but Blaze knew it was only a matter of time before he would lose his patience with them. It was as predictable as it was annoying.

All in all it would be better to get a late breakfast this morning. He could really do without all the petty family drama right now. Instead he opted on picking up a book and taking position at the window, from where he could oversee the street.

The book proved a bad distraction and soon Blaze found himself watching out of the window instead, content with just taking notice of what happened outside. The district was slowly waking up. There were peacekeepers patrolling the street, although they looked like their heads were still in their beds, some people hurrying towards their jobs. The neighbour was running late again, as every morning. He ran a few meters, then walked another few before breaking into a run again. Blaze tried and failed not to laugh when he saw that the man's shirt had not been properly tucked in his trousers, revealing a large piece of his rather fat back.

The laughing stopped quickly enough when his eyes fell on the girl that was practically marching towards his house. She was difficult to miss with her dark red hair and the red dress of a lighter shade. Iliana Destrumenta, although she preferred to go by Lia in day-to-day life, sixteen years old, five siblings, living exactly ten minutes away from him, with the most beautiful eyes and smile. Just a pity the smile and adoring look were always directed at Blaze's best friend Talon and never at Blaze himself.

Over the years Blaze had gotten to know the red-haired girl pretty well. Yessiree used to sneer at him that he was obsessed with her, Blaze just called it looking out for her. Lia was a favourite victim of the district's bullies and since nobody else did Blaze had made it his job. So yes, he followed her every now and then, but that was only to make sure nobody bothered her. It certainly wasn't stalking. It was just him doing his duty.

He doubted Lia would see it the same way. For all he knew she hated him with a passion. It was therefore best that she never found out. Lia didn't anger easily, but once she was angry, it was a sight to behold and Blaze was on her bad side more than enough already. He had no ambition to make it even worse.

And Iliana was definitely on the warpath now. Her jaw was set, her eyes narrowed as she marched over to their house with long decisive steps. Blaze got a bad feeling about this. He knew her mother was gravely ill, starting two years ago, and as a result of that, Lia had been here at least twice a week ever since. And his father, being the unfeeling man that he was, had sent her away empty-handed every time because she was unable to pay him for he care her mother needed. It wasn't that much of a mystery why Lia never liked him.

That didn't mean he could not keep trying. He abandoned his comfortable chair and raced downstairs, taking two steps at a time to get there faster. Most people tripped when they tried to do that when going down, but Blaze had perfected the art long ago. This skill now enabled him to open the door only seconds after Lia had knocked on it. 'Hi, Lia.' He could bang his head against the wall immediately after he had said that. Could he really not come up with something a little more original? No wonder she hardly noticed him.

She recognised him immediately if the disapproving look on her face was anything to go by. 'That's Iliana to you,' she snapped, in that instant reminding him a lot of his mother. 'Is your father in?' She obviously tried to make it sound like this wasn't urgent at all, but Blaze hadn't been doing his years of observation for nothing. She was desperate. Something must have gone terribly wrong.

'I'll get him for you,' he promised. And he hated his own inability to do anything more useful for her. 'Come in. He's in the kitchen, but I'm sure I can steal him for a while. Why don't you ehm… just take a seat and I'll be right back?' He stopped himself there. He was rambling like an idiot and Lia's gaze told him as much. There was loathing and impatience to be seen there.

'Can you just hurry up?' she barked at him. 'Unlike some, I do not have the time to sit around all day doing nothing!'

That stung. Of course Blaze's family was richer than most families in the district and Blaze didn't really need a job yet. He was learning his father's profession, but to many that wouldn't really count as work. Apparently Lia was one of those persons.

'I'm on my way,' he told her, trying and failing to keep the disappointment out of his voice. 'Wait a minute!'

He raced for the kitchen, even though he already knew how this encounter was going to end. Lia would get sent away with nothing, as usual, but in a few days' time she would still come again, begging for help that his father refused to give her. It was unfair, no, it was beyond unfair and Blaze swore that once he was finally a proper doctor, he would never ever turn patients away. And he would start with Lia's mother.

**Iliana Destrumenta, 16**

Lia's spirits had arrived at an all-time low by the time it was time for the reapings. The doctor had bluntly refused her request before the last words had even left her mouth. This was no surprise to Lia, yet the disappointment would not be kept at bay, allowing those treacherous tears to spill over. She had begged, wept and made one hell of a scene, just as she had decided she would, but it had not helped her, not at all. The doctor just kept that icy glare of his pointed at her, his determination not to do the right thing never as much as wavering as he told her she should stop wasting his time, and her own.

By then Lia had been ready to hit him, preferably right on his nose, and it had taken the last remnants of self-control to walk out of that blasted place without causing that pathetic excuse for a doctor some physical harm. As tempting as that no doubt was, it would not help her case and it would certainly not do to get arrested. That would be less than helpful.

That didn't make her hate the doctor, or his worthless son what's-his-name, any less though. They were rich, yet they never used the smallest amount of that wealth to help other people. It was so horribly unfair!

'Are you all right, Lia?' Niya asked in a worried voice.

'What do you think?' she muttered under her breath, careful not to let Fox and Fern hear her concern. They were only thirteen years old, far too young to be burdened with these things. She looked them over. They both wore their best clothes, even if those were not as neat or clean as Lia would have liked. 'All right, listen up,' she said, gaining her their attention. 'As soon as reaping is done, I want the two of you right here as soon as you possibly can. No running off and no games.' Even when Niya was technically the older one, Lia was best in keeping her younger siblings in line. Niya was too easy on them most of the time.

Fern seemed to weigh his chances, eyeing her with a thoughtful look. 'And if we don't?' he wondered.

Despite the terrible situation, Lia could hardly bite back a smile. She had been anticipating this. 'Then I'll make sure that you will do the dishes for two weeks on end,' she countered, knowing that if there was one chore the twins hated with a passion, it was that.

His face fell. 'Oh. Right. We'll be right back then.' They ran off.

'You'd better!' Lia called at their retreating backs.

She took a deep breath and signed in. In all the commotion of the morning she had almost forgotten that today was also reaping day. Just when she thought things could not possibly get any worse, this happened. Sometimes she did wonder if she had just gotten all the bad luck in the entire district.

'Lia?' She only came back to reality when a hand was waved in front of her face. 'You were miles away.'

She smiled at her friend Miya. 'A lot on my mind, is all.'

Miya nodded understandingly. 'Your mother again? is it bad?'

That was the comfort of having a friend like Miya. They could have been sisters, so close were they. Miya seemed to have the ability to read Lia's mind. These days Lia didn't often have to say what was the matter, her friend seemed to know it before she would be able to say it. Sometimes she wondered if it just was written in large letters all over her forehead or something like it.

'Really bad,' Lia confirmed curtly, not wanting to discuss this right now. First survive the reaping, then deal with everything else. As serious as her mother's condition was, the reaping took precedence, even if it was only because she needed to keep an eye on her siblings.

The nerves that had been kept at bay by the anger at the doctor finally took over. All of them were taking tesserae to keep the family alive, but that did mean they were all taking a huge risk and Lia wasn't comfortable with that, especially now that Fern and Fox were thrown in the middle of it as well.

Her attention shifted to the escort, a man with orange hair called Julius Light. His sister Julia was the escort for another district, Lia knew, and she wondered if she would be a little less annoying than her brother, because he was just a plain idiot with a Hunger Games obsession. Well, nothing new there. All those nutcases in the Capitol were obsessed with it.

'And now is the time to choose ourrrrr female trrrribute forrrr the fifty-firrrrst annual Hungerrrrr Games!' Julius Light had the annoying habit to endlessly drag out his r's. He had been assigned to this district for five years now and his speaking habits were the joke of the district ever since.

He walked over to the girls' bowl – did he actually wear high heels? – and pulled out a slip. 'Iliana Destrrrrrumenta!' he called out.

**Blaze Shadow, 17**

The world skidded to a stop. Nothing moved. Nobody talked. Even the birds seemed to have stopped their happy whistling in the trees. And it only seemed appropriate. Because that horrible man up the stage had just done the unthinkable. He had just sentenced the most beautiful, caring girl in the district to a horrible death in the arena.

His stomach seemed to have turned to ice. This was a crime, a horrible mistake. Light must have made a mistake. They couldn't do this!

Lia slowly walked up to the stage. Her face was pale and her hands were trembling, but she kept herself together as Blaze knew she would. She was too strong to go to pieces now. She had practically been the caretaker of her family and made of sterner stuff than that.

'Oh, I think I have neverrrr seen such a beautiful girrrrl on this stage!' Julius exclaimed in delight. To Blaze's ears it sounded mocking, like he was making fun of Lia's beauty.

Lia obviously agreed. She fixed the annoying man with a glare so stern that he just left her and decided to select the "brrrrrave male trrribute!"

Blaze didn't listen, or look. His eyes were fixed on the girl up there, all alone, visibly trembling. That was the only sign of weakness Blaze could perceive, but it was enough. She didn't stand a chance in that horrible arena, all alone. Maybe she could get allies, but he doubted it. She had always been bullied here. What made him believe that the other tributes would be any different?

She would not come back. He knew that. In a few minutes' time that escort would lead her away into that building and he would never see her again, except on a television screen when he would be forced to watch her death, unable to do anything to prevent it.

That made his mind up for him. He would be able to do something about that. He wasn't forced to sit back, powerless, while she was being slaughtered by those horrible Careers that roamed the arena searching for a prey. It was well within his power to stop that from happening.

A name was being read. Blaze didn't really hear who it was, just that his name had a lot of r's in it. But it was not important, not at all. 'I volunteer!' he shouted.

A deathly quiet settled over the square. Blaze knew why. District Eleven had never before had a volunteer. It was an almost unspoken rule that no one would ever willingly surrender himself to the Capitol's mercy. It was a kind of quiet resistance, a refusal to play the Capitol's games. They would not participate unless they were forced. Blaze was sure the Capitol would laugh at this rule, but for the inhabitants of Eleven it was dead serious. And he had just broken their single most important rule.

But he didn't regret his actions. It would be worth it, even when his decision meant that he would never ever see this place again. He would make sure that Lia would and that was enough for him.

He made his way to the stage, ignoring the death glares that were sent his way. His eyes wandered to Lia, who looked at him with the utmost contempt. A little too late he realised that she must be thinking that he had only volunteered for the glory of it. That would make his job – because that was what this was, what it had always been – quite a bit more difficult. He didn't doubt that to a certain extent he could protect her from the distance, but it was less than ideal. If this was going to work he needed her to trust him.

He was still pondering this when he realised the escort had asked him for his name. 'Blaze Shadow,' he told him, suddenly very grateful for the fact there wasn't a single r to be found in his name, because Julius could succeed in making every name that had sounding completely and utterly ridiculous.

'How verrry brrrave of you to volunteerrrr!' Julius exclaimed. 'Please join me in applauding our brrrrave trrributes: Iliana Destrrrumenta and Blaze Shadow!'

As it turned out, he was the only one to applaud them and then they were quickly ushered into the building. Lia was taken to another room, but Blaze knew he'd see her soon again. That thought comforted him, even as it didn't seem to comfort her. If that glare was anything to go by, she despised him. It would be very hard on him indeed to make her see that he was on her side.

He didn't have to wait long for his visitors. His family came in first, but Blaze hardly paid them any mind. His father scolded him for being so unforgivably insane and his mother seemed to think he had lost his mind entirely. Neither of them seemed to understand why he would risk his life when there was no need to.

Strangely it was Yessiree who caught on. 'It's that girl, isn't it?' she exclaimed, not caring that she was interrupting her father's best lecture in weeks. 'Iliana Please-help-my-mother-is-so-ill Destrrrrumenta.'

Blaze could have hit her for making fun of Lia like that, but he was as of yet too surprised that she had even noticed. 'How…?' he asked, unable to get out a full sentence.

Yessiree snorted in her most dismissive manner. 'You've had a crush on her for _years_!' She threw her hands in the air in mock despair. 'It's _hardly_ a secret!'

There was a very uneasy silence in the room, only broken when the Peacekeepers told the family it was time to leave. Blaze thought he should have cared that they were acting so indifferently, but he had become too used to it over the years. And if he had really cared about them, he might have thought twice about volunteering. But he hadn't and maybe that told him all he needed to know about that relationship.

Talon came in, followed by Niko and Fara, who were – how predictably – holding hands, again.

'You are insane,' Talon informed him.

Blaze managed to crack a grin. 'My beloved sister as good as told me that already,' he retorted. 'Anything to add?' He raised his eyebrows in a mocking manner.

Niko shook his head, clearly thinking him as insane as Talon had just made him out to be. It was Fara, however, that seemed to approve. 'It's very romantic,' she told him dreamily. 'So heroic.' She sighed longingly.

Blaze was tired of her already. The way she clung to Niko was more than annoying, the way she seemed to be living in her own fairy-tale world was even more so. She had no grip on reality whatsoever and the way she talked about it made Blaze's actions look like a try at heroism, which this wasn't, not in the slightest. This was about protecting Lia, and nothing else. And he swore to himself, as he was saying his farewells to his friends, that he would make sure she would get back again, even if it was the last thing he did.

**Iliana Destrumenta, 16**

_You will not cry. You will not cry. You will not cry_. Lia repeated those words like a mantra in her head. Maybe later, maybe tonight she would allow herself to weep, but not yet. She would have to be strong for a little longer, at least until her visitors had gone. She could not let her siblings see her as weak. They needed to believe, if only for a little longer, that she could come back.

Seeing her family only strengthened that decision. Miguel was already in tears, running into her arms, clinging to her for dear life. Aio clearly thought that at nine years he was too old to cry, but his lips were trembling and one tear still escaped.

'You will be back, right?' Fox was trying and failing to be brave. Her eyes were red and swollen and Lia could hear she didn't believe in the possibility of Lia's return. And Lia knew she was right to think so. District Eleven was a poor district and it didn't have many Victors. The two mentors that they currently had were the only ones in half a century and it was common knowledge that one of them was just barking mad. The chances of survival were slim to none.

But the truth might not be the best option in this particular case. So she conjured up a smile and nodded. 'Of course I will be back. You just make sure mum will be all right, yes?' Giving them something to focus on might just be the way for them to deal with this. They needed something to occupy their minds. 'And I'll be back in no time at all and then there'll be more than enough money to take care of her. We'll buy the medicines and mum will get well again, you'll see.'

She knew she was just talking herself into optimism, but a small part of her desperately hoped she would be able to make good on this promise. He mother needed the help, there was no denying that and if Lia's survival meant that her mother would get well again, who was she then to throw in the towel already? She was not yet defeated.

'I'll be back,' she repeated, gently stroking Miguel's hair. 'You just wait and see. I'll be back before you know it.'

If she kept saying it long enough, it might even come true.

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**Did you think that escort as annoying as I thought him to be? Anyway, I hope to be able to update a little sooner next time. In the meantime, could you please spare another minute and review? Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8 - District 5 Reaping

**Hello everyone. Here's the new chapter for you. It's District 5 this time and I really hope I did these two justice. Your feedback would mean a lot to me, so please review and let me know what you think about the tributes. **

**Enjoy the chapter!**

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**Chapter 8**

**District 5 reapings**

**Magnus Selkirk, 15**

The morning started early, far too early in Magnus's opinion. The worst thing about it was that it didn't need to be. If Lilianna would, just for once, try to keep the noise down while she was taking a shower, all would be just fine. But it would just so happen that his older sister had recently "discovered" that she had a "talent" for singing. It would also just happen that the best place to practise this talent was the bathroom, next to Magnus's room. And unfortunately the ideal practise time was seven am in the morning.

'Li, please?' he yelled, knowing the walls were thin enough for her to hear him.

She ignored him, as she was prone do whenever she didn't want to hear her little brother. Magnus sighed and threw himself back against the pillow, fully awake now, all chance of sleep gone down the drain. Well, the good thing about waking so early was that he at least had the whole morning still to do whatever he wanted. Maybe he could search out his best friend and they could hang around till reaping time this afternoon.

Suddenly that sounded like a tremendous idea. Wincing as Lilianna tried her hand at a series of high notes he got out of bed and started to collect his clothes from around the room. In short that meant that he was going on an expedition to find his clothes from where he had thrown them the previous evening, too lazy to stash them all in one place. Besides, finding all items was a task that ensured he wasn't in danger of getting back into bed again, making sure he was completely awake by the time he was finished. His trousers appeared from under the cupboard, the shirt turned up near the chair. The socks were the only problem today. They had ended up under his bed and he was forced to crawl under it in order to retrieve them, hitting his head in the process.

'Ouch!' he muttered, meaning both the sore spot on his skull and his ears that were still tortured by Lilianna's attempt at an aria.

He put his clothes on and escaped to downstairs. His father had already left for work, but his mother was in the kitchen making breakfast. 'Morning, Kirk,' she greeted without turning.

Magnus grimaced. Trust Johnny to start addressing him by his surname. His best friend had started a trend, he supposed. Now even his own mother did it. The positive thing about this was that it did sound rather cool, though, so Magnus wasn't really complaining.

'Morning,' he yawned, not as awake as he had believed himself to be.

'Lilianna woke you?' his mother asked with a compassionate smile.

'What are the chances of her shutting up in near future?' he quipped, knowing full well that they were slim to none. It didn't really matter though. Li's singing was still better than a normal alarm.

Delise Selkirk chuckled indulgently. 'Tea?'

'No, thanks.' Magnus shook his head. 'I think I'm going to see if Johnny is already out and about. If I couldn't sleep through our district's new singing talent, I doubt he could.' He was almost sure that Cornelius Jonston, known to Magnus as Johnny, had been woken as well. Johnny lived next door and his room bordered the Selkirks' bathroom.

'Off you go then,' his mother smiled.

Magnus gave her a half mocking salute before grabbing some bread off the table, kissing his mother on the cheek and darting outside.

His assessment that Johnny was already up had indeed been spot on. Johnny, teasingly called that by Magnus after he had started addressing him by his surname, was seated on the lowest branch of the tree opposite their house. 'Hey, Kirk. Were you woken by a personal concert too?'

Magnus smirked. 'I didn't hear much concert going on, to be quite honest. I do think someone was strangling a cat in our bathroom though.'

That had Johnny let out a bark of laughter. 'Ha! Don't let your sister hear that, Kirk. She'd have your head. You should tell her to consider a singing career. You could be her manager.'

Now it was Magnus's turn to laugh. 'Nah, told you, I'm having my dad's job one day.'

'Factory equipment manager? I did happen to inform you that's not really ambitious, right?' There was definitely sarcasm there, since this was considered ambitious in District Five. But the quip was made in good humour, so Magnus didn't say anything of it. 'Who'd want to manage machinery when one could be a star's manager?' Johnny threw his hands in the air in mock exasperation.

'Machinery doesn't have mood swings,' Magnus countered easily. 'And it doesn't try to order you around to find its hairbrush either. But you're more than welcome to the job if you want. I'll let her know you're interested.'

His friend's face coloured as red as his shirt. Magnus had long suspected him to have a slight crush on his sister, despite the fact that he was three years Li's junior. Some guys would be bothered if their best friend fancied their sister, but Magnus could not care less. It was too much fun to tease him with it anyway.

'Strictly professionally musically speaking, of course,' he added with a sly grin.

Johnny relaxed a little. 'Of course,' he quickly agreed.

**Allisette Rose Syens, 15**

The day began as it usually did: Allisette woke early, grabbed her dress off the chair next to the bed, put it on and, accompanied by a book, made her way downstairs. The house was still silent, its occupants still in deep slumber. Her mother and Damin would make the most of the free day and sleep in if they could, provided that Syvis wouldn't do what she usually did on occasions such as these: wake early and crawl into her parents' bed, making so much noise in the process that she always woke everyone else. The funny thing was that she kept insisting with all her four year old logic that she really had been very quiet.

Today Allisette wasn't the first one awake though. A complaining mew alerted her to Sveak's needs. The black and white fur ball looked up at her, green eyes demanding to know why he had not yet received breakfast from anyone.

Allisette petted him. 'Oh, you poor thing,' she said in a half mocking voice. 'Well, mum is still asleep, you know. If you won't tell her you ate from my plate, I won't either.'

Sveak was completely in agreement with his mistress over that arrangement. He jumped on her lap and eagerly ate everything Allisette held in front of him. In return he allowed her to stroke his fur. The cat was soft and fluffy and he enjoyed the attention almost as much as the food. The animal ate everything, varying from rats and mice to bread and the left-over potatoes.

They settled into their normal rhythm. As soon as Sveak was done, he curled himself up and went back to sleep, his favourite pastime apart from eating. Allisette petted him absent-mindedly while she buried her nose in her book, losing herself in the details of architecture, the latest thing to catch her interest.

She hardly noticed the time passing while she was reading. It had always been like that, from the moment the teacher in school taught her that these things called letters formed words. They made it possible to convey knowledge and stories, opening up a whole new world that remained closed to those who did not know how to decipher the mystery of the written word.

The first thing she became aware of again was the amused voice of her stepfather. 'I should have known you were reading, Allis,' he remarked. 'I don't believe you have heard a word I just said.'

She turned around, flushing bright red. 'How long have you been talking to me?'

Damin ruffled her hair, earning him a muffled protest. 'It doesn't matter,' he reassured her. His eyes drifted to her lap, where Sveak was still having his catnap, dreaming of catching mice or whatever it was that cats dreamed of. 'But you'd better make sure your mother doesn't find out you've been feeding that mass of fur from your own plate again.'

Allisette conjured up her most innocent look. 'Whatever gave you that idea?' As if he knew what was being discussed at the moment Sveak cracked open one eye, looking equally innocent.

Damin laughed. 'Look at the pair of you! As innocent as new-born babes, yes?'

'Of course,' Allisette agreed. 'But better not tell mum of our innocence, right?' Her mother wasn't a big fan of the cat. She tolerated him for her daughter's sake, but she didn't want him anywhere near the food though, always saying he should earn his own keep by catching the mice that always managed to slip into the house.

'I won't if you go up and change into reaping clothes,' Damin offered.

Allisette frowned. 'Reaping isn't for ages yet.'

'Lost track of time again, Allis?' Damin wasn't mad, she knew. He was just teasing her. 'You'd better put that book down and change before my dear wife gets a heart attack.'

'Nothing wrong with my dress,' Allisette argued half-heartedly, but she got up and set the cat on the floor, earning another indignant mew. 'You cannot complain,' she told Sveak. 'You can sit with Hasie instead.' Her half-sister had just entered the kitchen, still sleepy. Sveak adored the younger girl almost just as much and wasted no time in jumping on her lap, begging for food with his most pleading gaze.

Allisette laughed and went to change, opting on going out earlier than was strictly necessary in order to catch up with her friends before reaping. She grabbed her book, shouted a 'see you later' in the direction of her mother and left, keeping up a slow jogging pace as she made her way across the district. She was tempted to read whilst walking, but decided that would make her look a bit too nerdy perhaps and it had the minor drawback of not seeing what was coming. That last decided it for her, especially after she only nearly managed to avoid a run-in with Tally Stevens, the official Terror of every kid in District Five. Spoiled arrogant brat that she was, and the Mayor's kid at that, could never seem to refrain from bullying people if she got the chance. Allisette rather not give her any chance.

'Hey, Alls!' someone called out to her.

She didn't even need to turn to know who was calling. 'Dript,' she acknowledged as he fell into step with her. 'What are you doing here?'

She didn't really dislike him, but his insistence to call her Alls was getting at her nerves. 'Looking for my esteemed cousin of course,' Dript told her. 'You've seen Jace and his better half already?'

Allisette arched an eyebrow. 'Would I even be talking to you if I had?'

He brought his hand to his heart in faked shock. 'You wound me, Alls,' he told her. 'Will you not remedy it?' The mischievous twinkle was too obvious to miss.

She nudged him in the ribs. 'Why on earth would I want to do that? It's not as if I like you.'

'You are being particularly mean today, dearest nerd,' he teased her.

Allisette allowed himself to glare at him. 'Yeah, well, I'm PMSING!' She yelled the last word for good measure, making sure everyone in a thirty meter radius heard that.

Even though it succeeded in turning quite a lot of heads, including those of a few Peacekeepers who stared after her as if she'd lost her mind, Dript remained utterly calm. 'Can't,' he countered, still with that easy annoying smile on his face. 'You were two weeks ago.'

Shit. He had actually remembered that? She coloured bright red.

Fortunately she was saved from the stuck-up pig, as she privately called him, by his "esteemed cousin and his better half". 'Can't we leave the two of you alone for five minutes?' Jace wondered.

'We could hear you from three blocks away,' Gwyna grinned.

'Surprised you did hear us,' Allisette retorted. 'Weren't you two too busy investigating each other's lips to be aware of anything?'

The addressed people flushed bright red. 'How many times do we need to tell you we don't…'

'Kiss?' Dript suggested.

'Snog?' Allisette corrected. 'Probably till the world ends and we still won't believe it. Come on, reaping time. The earlier that's over the sooner you can go back to that activity you keep telling me you don't engage in.'

Allisette wasn't really a big fan of the reapings, but she wasn't really scared either, not like other kids who were crying at the prospect. She just gave them as little thought as she could, focusing on things planned for after the reapings to get her through. Maybe it was naïve, but it didn't really matter to her.

The Mayor, a man as ugly as his daughter, droned on and on, but Allisette blocked him out. She had heard it all before. Instead she looked over to where Gwyna stood in the sixteen year old section, but her friend was not seeing her gaze. Gwyna was still drooling over Jace, who wasn't paying attention to the Mayor either, choosing to spend his time joking with Dript, pretending not to see Gwyna's puppy eyes. How those two kept insisting they weren't a couple was beyond Allisette. It was only a matter of time in her opinion.

Things only got interesting on the stage when the escort made her entrée. She was new to this District. Her predecessor had been promoted to District Four last year and Allisette along with the rest of the District was of the opinion that they were well rid of him. Things could only improve.

One look at the new escort made her change her mind. It could get worse. This woman was still young and definitely inexperienced. She had purple hair with blue streaks and a golden skin to go with it. It hurt to look at. On top of that she was far too enthusiastic about all this, but since that seemed to be a Capitol trait, Allisette didn't take too much notice.

'Oh, I have been looking forward to this day!' she squeaked into the microphone. 'I can hardly wait to see which of you lovely children will get the honour of representing District Five in this year's Hunger Games!'

_Then pick a name and get it over with already._

It was as if the escort had heard her. She all but ran over to the girls' bowl and picked a name without hesitating, just fishing out the first slip she could get her hands on. 'Let's see who's the lucky one, shall we?' she asked. She didn't wait for the reply that was never going to come anyway and read the name. 'Allisette Rose Syens.'

**Magnus Selkirk, 15**

'You can't do that!' an angry voice shouted. Magnus couldn't see who it was that had been yelling, but she must be somewhere in the sixteen year old female section. He guessed it would be a friend of that poor girl that was now slowly making her way to the stage, nudged in the back by Peacekeepers every now and then who wanted her to go faster. 'You can't take her!'

Bu they could and would and no amount of shouting was going to save that girl now. And Magnus could see she knew it. Now that she was up on the stage he could get a clear picture of her face and it was unhealthily pale. The girl, Allisette he believed the escort had called, looked ready to break down. And she should. Because this was most likely a death sentence for her.

And all this was for some stupid punishment for a rebellion that had ended half a century ago. If it wouldn't be so dangerous Magnus would tell them to just grow up and get over themselves. Quite frankly it was more than a little ridiculous for them to keep doing this, not to mention that they didn't seem to realise that they were killing off those who could be so valuable to their precious Capitol. But he could not make them grow up and get over themselves, which was why he was here forced to watch her being taken to die in some stupid arena.

'Poor thing,' Johnny muttered.

'You can say that again,' Magnus agreed.

Reapings made him feel uneasy. Apart from the plain Capitol stupidity that it was, he also felt strangely locked up with all those Peacekeepers lurking about. And today had not begun exceptionally promising as the Peacekeepers kept trying to move him into the eighteen year old section. So yes, Magnus knew he was looking older than he really was, but this was just plain absurd. In the end one of the idiots-in-white had checked his name on the list and then they had finally agreed on Magnus's age. It didn't do much to convince Magnus of any intelligence they may or may not possess.

'And now let us quickly choose our male tribute!' the new escort, Goldie Aquamarine, giggled. 'I can't wait any longer!'

_I'm sure you can't._

Magnus watched her as she went to grab a slip of paper and hurried back to the microphone. 'Magnus Selkirk!'

It felt like he had just swallowed some kind of heavy stone that landed in his stomach with considerable speed, making him almost double over with nausea. This was not part of the plan. He had never believed he would be reaped to compete. It had never been a real possibility. They were moderately wealthy. He didn't take tesserae. There was so little risk. Why him?

'Go,' Johnny told him softly. His friend was as pale as a sheet, but he nudged him forward gently anyway.

Magnus obeyed, although he only became aware of that as he was already halfway to the stage. His mind registered that someone somewhere was screaming. It might be his mother, but he ignored her, knowing he would break down if he as much as acknowledged her panic. He couldn't do that.

'Wow, you're a handsome fellow,' Goldie commented when he climbed up the stage. 'Come on, come over here.' It was almost as if he was some dog she could call whenever she wanted and Magnus hated it.

Nonetheless he did as she asked, because there wasn't much choice in the matter. He needed to do as they asked. That was the way things went. And so he shook the girl's hand, nodding at her in a form of respect. He didn't hate her and if he could he would avoid killing her in the arena. He made that promise to himself right there and then.

But it was going to be difficult, he knew as he waited in the room in the Justice building for his family to arrive. They did not make him wait long. His mother was still in tears and even his father, who normally was firmly in control of himself, was visibly shaken. Lilianna was the worst, sobbing uncontrollably, wrapping her younger brother in a tight embrace. She wasn't known to do that, at all. Normally she behaved as if she was far more mature than Magnus, but she seemed to have forgotten that.

'Li, I'm suffocating,' he choked out.

She let go of him, but she was instantly replaced by their parents. 'Be strong, son,' Fir Selkirk told him.

There were no assurances of how they were certain he could pull this off and Magnus was grateful for it. He knew for certain he would try to stay alive, but he just was not sure he could manage it.

But now was not the time to tell them that. So instead he settled for: 'I'll have to come back. Otherwise who is going to be the next equipment manager?'

The joke was hardly convincing, but the effort was appreciated. They left the room with half-hearted smiles, which was better than the tears, Magnus reckoned. He was ever so glad that Johnny wasted no time on tears.

'You need to stay away from the Careers,' his friends started off as soon as the door had closed behind him. 'Run to the Cornucopia, get some stuff and get out.'

Magnus threw his hands up in the air. 'I know,' he reminded Johnny. 'We both watched the Games for the last few years.' It had seemed like a silly thing to do back then, to all but study the Hunger Games each year and more than once it had made Magnus want to throw up in disgust, but he was ever so grateful that he had right now. He knew what to do and don't and that was bound to have some influence on his survival chances, right?

'You'd better remember them,' Johnny threatened. It would have been slightly more impressive if he had not been so pale.

'I will,' Magnus promised, suddenly caught off guard by his friend's unexpected hug. 'I will.'

**Allisette Rose Syens, 15**

Allisette didn't know whose idea it had been to bring Sveak, but she was eternally grateful to them. The cat had jumped out of Hasie's arms right into hers and Allisette had yet to let go of him. Sveak of course had no idea why he was being held like he was his mistress's lifeline, but he didn't seem to mind. He purred and seemed to be completely comfortable where he was.

Syvis had no idea what was happening, not really. She had gone to explore the room, giggling happily. In a way Allisette envied her naivety. She'd much rather not want to know what was going on either. Drone, her only half-brother at least understood that his eldest sister, who he so looked up to, was probably never coming home again. His lip was trembling and there were tears in his eyes. Hasie and her mother were just crying, while Damin tried to keep it all together, visibly uncomfortable with all the sobbing going on around him.

'You need to stay away from the bloodbath,' he told her. 'Grab something if you can, but then just run. Get out of there as fast as you can, girl.'

Allisette nodded, hanging onto his every word as if they were the only things keeping her alive. In the arena that might very well be the case. 'I'll do that,' she promised.

'I know.' He caught her in a bearlike hug. 'You may not be my own daughter, but I love you as if you were. So you'd better come back, Allis. Do you hear me?'

That was almost too much. Allisette had long suspected he felt like that, but this was the first time he actually said it. She tried to bite back the tears that tried to escape, but they weren't that easily stopped. Strangely enough they were tears of joy and happiness now. Her own father was a bastard that had run long ago. Allisette knew who he was, but she had never had contact with him, not because she had not tried, but because he didn't want to. It made her feel rejected, but Damin made her feel loved and cherished and accepted, all those things her real father had never given her.

'I do,' she whispered. 'Thank you.'

Sveak started to miaow, protesting against being crushed by two of the humans in the room. Who cared about all this emotional mess when he was so uncomfortable, after all? The cat's indignant noises made Allisette almost laugh. It was good to know that some things never changed even when the entire world had been turned upside down. It was a real relief to her.

'You'll look after him, won't you?' she asked.

The question had been meant for Damin, who had a soft spot for this fur ball, as he often called him. It was her mother who answered however. 'We will,' she promised. 'We will not turn him out.' She bit her lip, trying to get her emotions under control. 'We will even feed him from our plates, if you like.'

That made Allisette almost cry. There was after all only one reason why her mother would ever offer such a thing, and that was if she wanted to send her daughter off knowing that all the important things were taken care of before she died.

All her newfound relief left her immediately.

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**I hope you enjoyed this. Please review?**


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